Professor Michael Branden is intrigued when Enos Erb, an Amish man, claims that his brother, Benny—a dwarf like himself—has been murdered. But Branden's attention is divided when a young student apparently leaps to her death from the college bell tower.

As Branden and his friends, Pastor Caleb Troyer and Sheriff Bruce Robertson, begin their investigation into the girl's death, they uncover links to a controversial genetics study investigating the effects of inbreeding within the Amish community—a study in which both Enos and Benny had participated.