Lila, a teenaged Dakota farm girl, has a fiery streak of determination to match her flame red hair. And, as a young woman in the 1920s, she will need every ounce of fire to overcome the expectations of her family of German immigrants from Russia. Can she forge her own destiny in the still-evolving America of the early twentieth century? Lila is the mesmerizing novel of one woman's trials and triumphs, which lays bare our nation's complex cultural heritage. As part of the German diaspora from Russia, Lila's world revolves around the Evangelical Lutheran Church community, which does not tolerate outspokenness or disrespect to elders. However, Lila soon finds herself running afoul of her father's wishes. He has forbidden her to socialize with the wild young man Fischer, and when her father remarries, she is relegated to fieldwork rather than her beloved baking. As cultures clash and violence erupts, Lila is forced to navigate opposing forces in her ever-changing world. As she does, this absorbing, authentic immersion in a time long gone celebrates the deep reserves of inner strength in all of us, which are summoned grit and glory by the indomitable Lila.