Professor Michael Branden, newly deputized to the Holmes County Sheriff's Department, gives every outward appearance of being Amish. His assignment: to act as decoy in Sheriff Bruce Robertson's investigation of a series of robberies among—and perhaps by—the Peaceful Ones. Suddenly Branden's undercover work is interrupted by grave news. An Amish buggy has collided with an eighteen-wheeler, and Sheriff Robertson is among the casualties.

Branden and Pastor Caleb Troyer need information from the Amish if they are to determine how the accident is connected with a spate of disturbing events, including a buggy horse shot dead, a bank official gone missing, and land swindles involving out-of-town developers, one of whom has close ties with an Amish bishop.

It won't hurt to tell the professor what we know, the Amish surmise, implicitly trusting the man who has lived all his life in the shadow of the community to identify the traitor who lurks in their midst. But will they act before the storm clouds burst?