Christy Huddleston is a spunky, 19-year-old woman in 1912 who leaves her comfortable life in Asheville, Tennessee to be a teacher at a missionary school in the remote Tennessee Appalachian town of Cutter Gap which is run by the strong-willed Alice Henderson and Alice's son-in-law Dr. Neil MacNeill who gives Christy new insights to this remote town, as well as its customs and lifestyles of the populace.