This is a story about the complexities of life, the ironies and decisions we make and how they shape our lives going forward. Though set in an Amish community, many of the same issues are questions Englishers face. One of the things that struck me, reading it, was just how easy it was to forget what time period the book is set in -- 1915, just going into WWI -- because the Amish community has not really changed much in those hundred years. It is only through the mentioning of small things here and there that the reader remembers the setting, and that speaks volumes about the Amish people as a whole (in a good way). Literally a timeless story!