Charis Otto is eager to spend the holiday season with her beau, Eli. Perhaps, he’ll propose to her on Christmas. However, her plans are dashed when her mother forces her to go help her ailing aunt in Illinois. She tearfully departs Ohio, promising Eli she’ll write him often and be back in time for Christmas. Eli agrees to write her as well, and the two sweethearts begin a long-distance relationship.

Berea Bachman helps her parents run an Amish Bed and Breakfast. Curious and a bit nosy, she loves hearing about the lives of the guests who come to stay with them. Shortly before Christmas an Englischer arrives, a man who is both intriguing and different—a man who captures her imagination. Daniel Lapp has loved Berea for years, but she doesn’t consider him as anything more than the man who he is hired to do various jobs around the inn.

Amish mothers Doris Schrock and her best friend, Marge Gundy, decide to play matchmaker for their two adult children. Since Marge is traveling east to take care of her ailing mother, this would give her daughter a place to stay. However, Lucinda Gundy and Jeremy Schrock couldn’t be more opposed to the idea. While neither are courting others, the idea of their mothers’ conspiring to put them together couldn’t be more unappealing.

Chloe Smucker and her blind sister, Rachel, are to manage their late aenti’s raspberry farm. They will need help, and help they get—though in an unexpected way. Asher Ropp can no longer tolerate how his father makes his money. If he stays, isn’t he a party to it? He leaves home abruptly, taking refuge in what he thinks is an empty raspberry farm, planning to offer his help to maintain the place.

Mary Yoder, a 19-year-old Amish girl, has been sucked into the Englisch world, following the lead of her two newly acquired friends, Amber and Denise. Mary blindly trusts them, letting them whisk her off to parties, change her appearance, and convince her that playing the field is much better than courting her love interest, Isaiah Kauffman. The excitement of Rumspringa is too alluring to think of anything other than having fun, so Mary ignores the nagging feeling in her gut that she’s headed in the wrong direction.