Raising a family and keeping it strong is a rigorous test of faith for the matriarch, Abby Adams Cranch Eliot. Nine of her fourteen babies die in the St. Louis parsonage, and two of the sons who survive become clergy and leave home for churches on opposite coasts. While Abby’s letters and visits help keep them connected, she also stands guard at the borders that set them apart from the unthinking people of faith and secure their privileges in the social order.