Amish bonnet-maker Christabel Zook was tired of caring for her siblings. The eldest of ten, she left Ember Ridge, a destination-Christmas town full of gingerbread, hot cocoa, and Christmas trees, for a bonnet-making apprenticeship miles away. For a year, she’s ignored her mother’s letters that pleaded with her to visit. But then, in the middle of a stitch, Christabel receives the news that will change her life forever. A beloved uncle has been murdered. Guilt-ridden that she’s stayed away, and determined to find the killer, Christabel boards a train for home. On that train, by startling chance, she discovers the man who murdered her uncle.

Jakob Preller is a successful fire investigator who carries secrets. At 16, an unsolved crime took his family from him. Disillusioned and in a terrible crisis of faith, he fled the Amish, vowing to never look back. He struck out on his own, still a teen, in the English world. Now, called back to Ember Ridge to investigate an Amish murder, he reunites with the world he ran from. With Christabel’s help, Jakob works to untangle the complicated twists of the mystery, and the faith he turned his back on. Dead-set on protecting Christabel, he’ll stop at nothing to shield her from a dangerous, ruthless villain who knows Christabel can identify him. In the process, Jakob uncovers long-buried secrets that could link this crime to the one that destroyed his family all those years before.

Will Christabel and Jakob’s forced proximity develop into romance? Will Jakob’s dark past be too much for him to overcome? Will Christabel’s gentle yet stubborn affection win him back to the Amish community that never stopped praying for him? If yes, their happily-ever-after will be hard-won. And if yes, because of that, it stands the chance of enduring for a lifetime.