Plain Truth

American author Jodi Picoult’s novel Plain Truth (2001) takes place in the Amish community. It is about an eighteen-year-old Amish girl, Katie Fisher, who is charged with the murder of her newborn son. As Katie’s trial is set, her distant relative Ellie Hathaway steps in as her defense attorney. The bail conditions require Ellie to remain on the farm with Katie for the duration of the trial, forcing Ellie to return to the Amish society that she left behind long ago. Serving as an in-depth exploration of the Amish culture and its interaction with the American justice system, and exploring themes of devotion, religious conflict, and motherhood, Plain Truth received mixed, but overall positive, reviews from critics, including being named Book of the Week from People magazine. It was adapted into a 2004 Lifetime television movie starring Mariska Hargitay as Ellie and Alison Pill as Katie.

A baby boy is found dead in the barn of an Amish dairy farm. At first, it seems to be an accidental death, but the detective quickly finds inconsistencies in the statements from the family living on the farm. When Katie, the teenage daughter of the farmer, is found to be suffering from the aftereffects of birth, the detective suspects murder. After being treated at the hospital, Katie is arrested for murder. Meanwhile, attorney Ellie Hathaway has just won the biggest case of her life. However, the emotional toll of defending clearly guilty clients is getting to her, making her feel sick. She’s also having problems in her relationship and decides to leave town for a while to try to figure out where she wants her life to go. She decides to visit her aunt Leda in the country, but when she arrives, she’s told that a cousin she never met has been accused of murder. At first, Ellie refuses to get involved, not wanting to become involved in yet another criminal case. However, Leda begs her for her help, and Ellie soon winds up enmeshed in Katie’s case.

Ellie is able to convince the judge to grant Katie bail at the pre-trial hearing, but the judge orders close supervision. This means that Ellie will have to stay at the Fisher family’s farm until the trial as a condition of Katie’s bail. Ellie is not happy about this situation, wanting nothing to do with the Amish lifestyle. She especially feels conflict with Katie’s strict father, Aaron, who owns the farm. Katie, meanwhile, is struggling with her memory of the night the baby was born, insisting to everyone who asks that she never even had a baby. Ellie calls in her friend Coop, an ex-boyfriend and psychiatrist to assess Katie for an insanity plea. He’s able to help Katie access her memories and realize that she had a baby, but Katie still insists she did not harm her child. Ellie feels this is a good foundation for an insanity plea. However, Katie convinces Ellie during the pre-trial hearings that an insanity plea wouldn’t work as a defense. Katie, who has been raised to never lie, feels an insanity defense would be crossing the line. Ellie agrees to change the defense, and Coop continues to work with Katie to uncover her memories of that night. Ellie and Coop grow closer again, becoming lovers, but Ellie is hesitant to commit to a relationship with him again after their breakup twenty-years ago. Ellie finds out she’s pregnant during the trial, which further complicates her relationship with Coop.



Ellie puts on the best defense she can manage for Katie, presenting an alternate theory that the baby died from an infection from the raw milk Katie drank on the dairy farm. This idea horrifies Katie, who insists on testifying over Ellie’s objection. When she gets on the stand, Katie admits to murdering her baby. Ellie figures out that it was the testimony of the medical expert that caused Katie to make that decision because she considers drinking the contaminated milk to be her fault if that’s what killed her baby. The jury remains in deliberations for many days, leading both Ellie and the prosecutor become nervous. The prosecutor offers a lenient plea deal, giving Katie a year on monitored probation, and she and Ellie agree. This allows Katie’s life to go mostly back to normal. The stress nearly causes Ellie to have a miscarriage, and the close call makes her decide to marry Coop. Everything seems to be resolved, except the baby’s death. As Ellie prepares to leave, Katie’s mother, Sarah, confesses to Ellie. She knew Aaron would excommunicate Katie if he knew she was pregnant, so Sarah killed the baby to protect Katie.

Jodi Picoult, an American novelist, is known for her emotional stories and twist endings. The winner of the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003, she is the author of twenty-five novels, as well as a run on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman in 2007. Four of her books have been adapted into Lifetime television movies, with a fifth, My Sister’s Keeper, being adapted into a major motion picture. She is involved in women’s advocacy and in local political issues in New Hampshire.