Jacob Hochstetler was a peace-loving Amish settler on the Pennsylvania frontier when Native American warriors, goaded on by the hostilities of the French and Indian War, attacked his family one September night in 1757. Taken captive by the warriors and grieving for the family members just killed, Jacob found his beliefs about love and nonresistance severely tested.

Jacob endured a hard winter as a prisoner in an Indian longhouse. Meanwhile, some members of his congregation—the first Amish settlement in America—moved away for fear of further attacks.

The Hochstetler Story includes maps, photographs, family tree charts, and other historical documents to help readers enter the story and era of the Hochstetler family. Author Ervin R. Stutzman assembled this information as he wrote Jacob's Choice, a novel focused on the life of Jacob Hochstetler.