Growing up Plain, Rachel Yoder dreamed of being a woman of confidence, like the hearty women and men of her ancestry. But unlike Gabriel Esh, her fiery great-uncle who preached out against age-old practices in the community and endured shunning for his beliefs, Rachel was said to be 'born shy.' After suffering the tragedy of early widowhood, she is so shadowed by grief that even her young daughter has trouble coaxing Rachel out of her shell.