On a gray, blustery March afternoon, 18-year-old Nathan Miller goes to the mailbox on his family's Pennsylvania farm and finds an Army draft induction order. While the rest of the country has been using all of its resources to defeat the Axis powers during the Second World War, Nathan has been aimlessly squandering his days in juvenile mischief. Strictly forbidden from any participation in the war by the Old Order Amish community to which he belongs, Nathan is suddenly caught up in a tug-o-war between his own peaceful people and the mightiest armed forces on the planet. Soon, Nathan is arrested for draft evasion and his eventual trial makes it clear that his problems are not going to just disappear. When he is found guilty, Nathan is sentenced to two years in a Federal prison; a sentence the judge is willing to suspend on the condition that Nathan reject his churches teachings and report for military service within 48 hours. With his time running out, Nathan must quickly choose between his renewed commitment to the Amish way of life, or capitulation to the warring government that would determine the course of his life, and quite possibly his death!