Nineteen-year-old Amish schoolteacher Eliza Frey is in love with longtime family friend Andy Clymer - but Andy has no clue. He makes that perfectly clear when he asks Eliza for advice about dating two different women, so he can decide which one to marry, and he’d like to be wed by Christmas. 

Eleanor Chupp has spent the last six years caring for her cancer-stricken mother. Now her mother is gone, and Eleanor is left to live alone with her father, a mean-spirited man with a heart of granite. On a bitterly cold January day, Eleanor’s father loses his temper and strikes her. Eleanor, scared for her life, runs away on her bicycle amidst a winter storm. She rides until she’s exhausted and almost frozen. At last, she finds shelter in a barn. 

Colin Fischer is in love with Collette Bontrager, but she’s in love with her long-time beau Ivan Yordy. Ivan hasn’t asked Collette to marry him yet, but Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and she has high hopes that the romantic holiday will be the day of his proposal. When rumors start circulating about Ivan and another woman, Collette is shocked and hurt. She remains loyal to Ivan, however, refusing to believe he would do that to her.

Eli Schrock’s life is pleasant enough. He likes his work as a farrier in his father’s smithy. He likes the girl he’s courting, Rebecca Hochstettler. Yet, there is no passion for what he does or where he lives, and part of him yearns to see more of the world and get more of an education than the standard Amish eighth grade. 

Anna Miller has her whole life ahead of her and everything to look forward to this Christmas. She’s always dreamed of being a wife and mother on an Amish farm, and her dreams are about to come true. She’s certain that this Christmas, after three long years, Jed Graber is finally going to propose. When Jed asks her out on a special Christmas date, Anna knows the moment has come. But instead of proposing, Jed tells her he’s moving hundreds of miles away, and Anna’s world comes crashing down. Later, Jed’s brother, Dale, tries to comfort her, but she draws away from everyone.

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.

Blanche Weaver’s life falls apart when her husband Andy is killed in a tragic accident. Now widowed with four children, she has no idea how she’ll survive. With winter upon them and Christmas approaching quickly, she manages to get hired at the factory where Andy worked. Blanche’s eldest daughter, at only 10 years old, is tasked with watching her younger siblings. Just when Blanche is about to despair, Jonas Eicher, the local toymaker, intervenes. Blanche doesn’t know what to make of this kind, quiet man who seems to instinctively know what she and her children need.

Dorothy Hartzler, a restless young Amish woman, dreams of something more than the traditional Amish life. With her mother ill and her fear of being alone increasing, Dorothy is forced to make decisions. When she is thrown into Saul Beachey’s company, she questions her reluctance to open her heart.

Forced to leave her community with her family, Clara Burkholder is cast into a miserable life of work and drudgery. She misses being Amish and longs to return. When she hears that Jonas, her childhood friend, has returned to the community, Clara becomes even more desperate. She longs to reach out but can’t find a way. Not until tragedy strikes. Jonas Garber is putting his foot down. After growing up in the Amish community and being forced to relocate with his family, he has returned and is determined to remain.

Florence Glick has devoted her life to taking care of her injured, widowed sister and her four children. When a mysterious neighbor moves into the abandoned Yoder farm next door, Florence’s interest is piqued. Philip Lehman seems to always be in the right place at the right time to help them, but there is something odd going on. Something he’s not revealing. Something that makes his behavior confusing. As Florence falls for him, she yearns to know his secret.

Nicole Lantz’s life is filled with questions. At 19, she’s on the precipice of adulthood in her small Amish community: baptism, marriage, children, life as a homemaker on an Amish farm. And at the same time, her growing friendship with Englischer Viviana Holt is showing her glimpses of a whole different world. A world that grows increasingly alluring as Christmas draws near and Viviana’s gift sparks disapproval from her parents and Hamish, the young man who is courting Nicole.

Abigail Joyce has never fit in with her middle-class family, or with the other young people her age obsessed with social media and the latest technology. Searching for something more, she agrees to spend the summer working at a bed and breakfast on a Mennonite farm in Rock Point, Ohio. Suddenly, she feels as though she might have finally found a place where she belongs. And that feeling only grows stronger when she meets an intriguing young Amish man.

Unlike most women her age, Linda Shrock has no plans to get married - ever. When her sister Ruth has baby number five in six years, Linda goes to stay with them. The infant can’t keep her food down and cries constantly, and Ruth’s husband’s furniture-making business is struggling - not the makings for a merry Christmas. And the Weavers’ hired hand, Luke Troyer, seems determined to disrupt Linda’s carefully made plans to live her life out as a spinster. She tries to fight the intense attraction that pulls her and Luke together.

Englischer Marcy Sutton flees her home in Ohio when problems caused by her husband Scott’s gambling addiction wreak havoc. She takes her two young children to stay at a friend’s lakeside cabin in Indiana, but on the way, the car breaks down, and they are stranded in a blizzard. Marcy and her children seek shelter with Hester and Gideon’s Amish family, whose simple way of life reminds Marcy of the true meaning of the Christmas season.

When Waneta Bowman is forced to go and stay with her cousins in Rock Point, Ohio, she misses the beau she left behind in Indiana. Even as she tries to settle into her new life, she waits anxiously to receive a letter from Thomas. But all her letters to him go unanswered. Isn’t he missing her? As the days wear on, Waneta feels guilt when thoughts of her beau are replaced by another man who offers friendship—and perhaps something more.