Accused of a terrible crime she did not commit, sixteen-year-old piano prodigy Elly Robin has narrowly escaped arrest by fleeing Chicago in a Curtiss Flying Boat. But a rough landing in an isolated Amish community leaves her physically battered.

Even as they nurse her back to health, a charismatic little Amish girl declares Elly's flying machine to be "an abomination." In fact the child seems to hold the entire community in her thrall. And when Elly at last realizes the terrible fate in store for her, she is forced to play for her very life...
For these, and other spectacular escapes, the newspapers dub Elly "The Female Houdini." But her pursuers are closing in. Until finally she is driven to adopt a disguise not just audacious, but unthinkable...