Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father, Reverend Robert Boughton. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes...

In the quiet town of Gilead, Iowa, aging Congregationalist minister John Ames begins writing a long letter to his young son, knowing he will not live to see the boy grow up. Reflecting on his life,...