Adam Bede follows the lives of a fictional rural community. The life and expectations of the good carpenter Adam Bede are disrupted when the local lord takes liberties below his station and his conscience. The novel is a discussion of class and education and also of religion, with the female Methodist preacher Dinah Morris coming to the fore as the novel progresses.

It's a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. The ancient regime running the parish covertly demands that she prove herself as a leader. However, her blunt manner, honed by years as an army pilot, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation and Chief of Police Russ Van Alystyne, in