The stifling, reclusive life of nineteen-year-old Irma Voth, recently married, and more recently deserted is turned on its head when a film crew moves in to make a movie about the strict religious community, in which she lives.

Irma Voth is the nineteen year old narrator of this, Miriam Toews's fifth novel. She lives in a rural Mennonite community in Mexico. When a crew arrives to make a film about the community, Irma is immediately drawn towards the outsiders and is hired as a translator on set. But Irma's father, intractable and domineering, is determined to destroy the film and eject the interlopers. His action sends Irma on an irrevocable path towards something that feels like freedom.