Eli lost his wife after just four years of blissful marriage and just two years after being blessed with a daughter, Sarah. He struggled to cope with the land and raising his daughter. Even with the help from friends in the community, he knew that he had to get work outside the community to survive, if only in the short term. He had to sell the family buggy to make ends meet and so had to walk the eight miles to the nearest town to ask for work. 

He was overheard by a taxi driver who struck up a conversation with Eli, and feeling sorry for him, he offered him a free lift home. The journey led to the driver offering advice that gave Eli hope. The next day, he again walked into town and found work at a hardware store, and as he walked home, the driver saw him on his way out to another call and offered him a lift once again.

They talked further and became friends, discovering that they had both lost their wives recently and both had daughters. The driver lived out in the farmlands but worked in the town and so offered to take Eli to work and home again if he agreed to help him with some gardening that needed doing at his home. 

The driver, Doug, was well-read and a man of faith (although not Amish), and the men supported each other despite their differences. When people in the village became outspoken and concerned about Eli mixing with outsiders, he invited the man and his daughter to the village where, after church service, he introduced them to his community. 

With a sad twist in the tale, we find out whether Doug and Eli remain friends, if the community accept the outsider, or will Eli be cast out, never to return?