At age twenty, Joel Umble, future Bishop of Ice Mountain,
is strong, wise, and handsome. No wonder nineteen-year-old
Martha Yoder has always noticed him. Still, she dares not
trust that her dreams of him could become a reality. Where
Joel is striking, she is plain. Where he is educated,
she’s had no time for schooling. Caring for her frail
grossmuder and aging parents has taken all the time she
might have spent being courted by boys her own age. And
then there is the matter of Judah Umble, Joel’s harsh
older bruder, who’s cast his cold eye on pursuing her
since she was sixteen.
The only kind of cold Martha is interested in is the
exhilarating chill of bathing in the creek in winter. It
is there that she escapes her cares—and where she just may
find the answer to her future in a most unexpected way—and
gain faith that together, she and Joel will have a very
special place among the Amish of Ice Mountain…