Hannah Fisher recounts the difficult birth of her firstborn son, Caleb, a 30-hour labor that nearly killed her. The baby died shortly after birth. Her daughter Rachel, by contrast, was born easily. Months after Rachel’s birth, Hannah’s husband Josiah contracted mumps, leaving him infertile.

Hannah is Amish and grew up with three brothers and an older sister, Margaret. Their father, Absalom Yoder, was a harsh disciplinarian. When her sister displayed vanity by combing her hair during Bible reading, he dragged her to the barn and sheared off her hair with sheep shears. When Hannah was 11, Absalom converted the family barn into a sawmill, plunging the family into poverty while the business was being built. Hannah worked in the mill, and her father considered her his “fourth son,” which hurt her deeply. Despite his temper, Absalom was also pious and generous, secretly delivering firewood to needy families during the night with Hannah’s help.

At 17, Hannah married Josiah Fisher, and her parents deeded them 40 acres. When Rachel was nine, Hannah’s mother died, and her father brought her mother’s cedar chest to their home. Hidden inside, Hannah discovered a book of Emily Dickinson’s poems wrapped in a kapp (head covering), its pages worn with use. Hannah began reading the poems secretly at night, finding a profound connection to both the words and her mother. She justified the reading as devotion, but later, she recognized this as a self-deception for which she would pay dearly.

Billy Walton, owner of the Shaken, Not Stirred tavern in Lakota, recalls being childhood friends with Josiah Fisher. Billy grew up above his father’s bar and had an alcohol use disorder before graduating high school. After two failed marriages and a heart attack at 45, he stopped drinking, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and now hosts meetings at his tavern.

When Rachel Fisher was 16, she came into the bar once with an unfamiliar boy. She wasn’t dressed in Amish clothing. Billy noticed that she seemed out of place, and the boy paid little attention to her. Months later, he learned Rachel was pregnant and had been expelled from her family and the Amish community.

Charlotte Chesterfield, an elderly woman who lived across the river from the Fishers, took Rachel into her home. Charlotte was an atheist and a nonconformist who smoked a pipe and challenged authority at county meetings. When she died, she willed her entire property to Rachel.

When 17-year-old Rachel tells Hannah that she is pregnant, Hannah refuses to believe it at first. Despite meetings with church leaders, Rachel refuses to name the father, and the church votes for streng meidung (severe shunning), meaning no contact with the community, even her own family. Charlotte Chesterfield offers Rachel a home across the river, and Hannah helps her daughter pack.

Hannah learns of her grandson Jasper’s birth secondhand. Suffering from insomnia, she realizes that she can see Charlotte’s house from her kitchen window. She begins watching when she is awake. One winter night, she sees Rachel up late with the baby. She carries a chair and a feather bed to a rise overlooking the river, where she sits in the cold and sings a lullaby until the light goes dark. This becomes a ritual that Josiah silently permits.

When Jasper is five, Charlotte dies and leaves her home to Rachel. A month later, Rachel comes to the opposite riverbank, and she and Hannah speak for the first time in years. Josiah appears and leads Hannah back to the house, but he relents on the porch and gives her permission for secret nighttime meetings with Rachel, provided no one—especially Hannah’s father—ever knows. For several years, Hannah meets clandestinely with Rachel and occasionally Jasper.

One morning, Rachel tells Hannah that she is pregnant again. Her belly grows alarmingly large, and Hannah never sees Rachel alive again. Hannah goes to the funeral to find only Jasper, Billy Walton, and Dr. Kennedy, while Josiah waits outside in the carriage. On the ride home, Josiah weeps. Hannah confesses that she had hoped to see the new baby, Gabriel, but Josiah warns that holding him could be like holding the devil.

Days after Rachel’s funeral, Thomas visits Jasper. He finds the newborn Gabriel sleeping in an apple crate in the barn, wrapped in Rachel’s shirt, while Jasper does chores. Jasper explains that Gabriel refused formula but drinks goat’s milk from a white doe that appeared in the yard with an overfull udder—Thomas notices she’s missing an ear tag of the same high-quality type used by the Fishers across the river.

Thomas begins visiting weekly to support both Jasper and Gabriel. At Gabriel’s first birthday, he weighs 34 pounds and stands 41 inches tall. Gabriel displays a remarkable ability to soothe and connect with animals, and a favorite chicken named Betsy rides on his bicycle handlebars.

When Gabriel turns five, Thomas begins taking him along on weekend veterinary calls, partly to give Jasper time to himself. Farmers are puzzled by Gabriel’s immense size, and word spreads throughout the communities about Rachel Fisher’s orphan son, the giant five-year-old assisting the local veterinarian.

Gabriel’s extraordinary size prompts speculation about his paternity. One suspect, Zack Foster, a large milk truck driver and former college football player, is ruled out after he announces at the bar that he had a vasectomy. Billy dismisses rumors about Thomas, seeing only affection in the veterinarian’s eyes.

To make up for his own past failures as a father, Billy sponsors a youth baseball team called Billy’s Bombers. The spring before Gabriel starts kindergarten, Thomas brings him to sign up for T-ball. Billy is shocked to learn the boy, who stands five feet six inches, is only five years old. During his second at-bat, Gabriel hits a line drive that breaks the first baseman’s arm. For safety, he is restricted to a small T-ball bat, and opposing teams move all their infielders to the outfield when he bats. That summer, Gabriel hits .820, with 32 home runs, some hit so far that the balls are never recovered.

Hannah finds comfort reading her mother’s Emily Dickinson poetry book. Handwritten notes in the margins reveal her mother’s inner life. She remembers when she learned the painful fact that Jasper has vowed never to be in her family’s company because of their role in Rachel’s shunning.

While Josiah is away for work, Hannah asks a friend to take her to one of Gabriel’s T-ball games. From the buggy, she watches Gabriel tower over the other children and hit a massive home run. His smile reminds her powerfully of Rachel, and she suppresses tears.

The following spring, Josiah calls Thomas when Hannah’s favorite goat falls gravely ill. He arrives with six-year-old Gabriel as his assistant. Hannah is struck by Gabriel’s strong resemblance to Rachel and his immediate, fearless gentleness with the sick animal.

Thomas diagnoses the goat with an untreatable and contagious disease and recommends euthanasia, leaving a syringe and instructions with Hannah. As they leave, Gabriel embraces her, pulling her gently to him before stepping back. After euthanizing and burying the goat, Hannah’s thoughts are consumed by the memory of her grandson’s embrace.