In affluent 1890s Philadelphia, Ellie McAllister has always pushed the boundaries of proper behavior. Her elite Ogontz boarding school trains her to be a refined young woman, but she yearns for the earthy, small town in Ohio where she first met an irresistibly unsuitable farm boy.
While travelling in Ohio, young Ellie witnesses a bully's hate crime and forms an unlikely bond with Cade, a troubled farm boy from a pacifist Dunker sect. Both are emotionally scarred by the violence. Ellie hides her terror but is repeatedly pulled back to Jonah's Landing where it happened. Cade's rage and desire for revenge puts him at odds with his religious community, driving him away from home toward a new life in Philadelphia.
Years later, Ellie and Cade meet unexpectedly, raising unresolved issues about the incident at Jonah's Landing ... and awakening their unrealized feelings for each other. When an opportunity to face the bully arises, a shocking chain of events threatens everything Ellie had hoped for her future.
Jonah's Landing chronicles a time when women are speaking out against societal constraints; Philadelphia's middle class is challenging the old elite; electricity and technology are transforming American cities. And Ellie and Cade, in the midst of it all, are forging a new way of being in the world together.