"I believe ignorance in the long run will prove far more expensive."
Newly arrived teacher Leanna Pallas is committed to bringing education to a rural Pennsylvania town in 1885. Miss Pallas quickly learns that not everyone in Mercerville values education as much as she does. The Collier family have lived and worked there as blacksmiths for generations, but now must decide if they should send their teenage son Joshua to school or train him in the family business. Impending poverty caused by the Industrial Revolution forces the Colliers to face a world that is quickly changing, and so must their plans for the future.