The novel “Plain Truth” tells about the religious people, who live on the Amish farm and about the mysterious story of a dead baby. The story begins with the moment when people accidentally discover the newborn dead baby on the Amish farm, who is wrapped in a sheet and abandoned on the street. This murder of the baby is a big shock for all inhabitants, because murder is a big sin for the entire Amish settlement. No one knows for sure whether the baby’s death was planned or whether he died during childbirth or he was stillborn.
Later, forensic scientists discover that the baby died after his birth, because some tissue fibers and a few bruises are found in his mouth. In addition, the umbilical cord is cut off and police officers are sure that the baby was strangled. Probably the umbilical cord is cut off with the help of scissors, which disappear on the farm of Aaron Fisher, Katie’s father. Katie Fisher is an 18-year-old girl from the Amish village, who is suspected of murder, but she claims she was not pregnant. Everyone says that Katie is a liar, because there are enough doctors, who, according to the results of the analysis, claim that Katie was pregnant and had a baby shortly before the tragedy.
Katie’s aunt Leda decides to hire a lawyer for Katie’s trial. Ellie Hathaway is a very successful lawyer, who won many court cases and saved many millionaires from imprisonment, is about to have her coming vacation. However, Leda, Ellie’s relative, begs to help Katie and Ellie agrees to prove the innocence of the young girl. Ellie must stay with Katie on the Amish farm and keep an eye on the girl before the trial. At this time, Ellie meets her ex-lover Coop, who is a legal psychologist and asks to work with Katie and assess her psychological state.
During the conversation with Katie, Ellie learns that the girl is lying to everyone. Ellie and Coop find out that Katie was pregnant, but she did not get pregnant from one of the Amish farm inhabitants. Before this tragedy, Katie secretly visits her older brother Jacob in the college, who is turned out of house and home, because he abandons religion, his church and life on the farm. During the visit, Katie meets Jacob’s friend, whose name is Adam. Katie and Adam begin their romantic relationships and later Katie realizes that she is pregnant. Her pregnancy is like a nightmare, because if Katie’s father finds out that she had sex before marriage and she was pregnant with a child, Aaron will abandon her daughter. Therefore, the girl secretly is pregnant with her baby, but during childbirth, she loses her consciousness, so Katie does not remember anything.
Katie tells the same story during the trial, but she makes believe she did not kill her newborn son. The doctor also proves the possibility of her baby’s death due to premature birth or listeriosis, an infectious disease that could be transmitted to the baby from Katie, when she was drinking milk on the farm. The court does not sentence Katie Fisher to imprisonment, but the girl will be under surveillance for one year, wearing the electronic bracelet.
It seems that there is the end of the story, but it is not to be so. When Ellie gathers up the luggage after the trial, Sarah Fisher thanks Ellie for her help. However, at this moment Sarah hands Ellie a strange thing wrapped in a bloody sheet. Ellie opens the fabric with fear and surprise and everything becomes obvious here. There is a bloodied pair of scissors in Ellie’s hands that disappears from the farm and Sarah with tears in her eyes asks Ellie to take it with her. It turns out that Sarah noticed her daughter Katie was pregnant and she waited every day for the birth of Katie’s baby. Since Sarah was afraid that Aaron could reject her daughter, she decided, to put it mildly, to get rid of the baby. Katie does not even suspect that her mother was observing her all the time. The reader is not sure whether Sarah killed the baby or not, but we know that the innocent little happiness left this world because of Sarah. If Katie had not lost consciousness that day, maybe she would have stayed with her child.
Ellie perfectly understands that now she has two ways – to either go against justice, or immediately tell the whole truth to the court. She knows how difficult it will be for Katie to lose her mother and get know the whole truth, therefore Ellie decides to hide the truth with all her might. Together with Coop, she leaves the Amish farm and does not want to return there anymore.
