In this book, stubborn, controlling Nathan Price brings his wife, Orleanna, and his four daughters, Rachael, Ruth May, and twins Adah and Leah, on a one year missionary trip to the Congo. The year is 1959, and the Congo is not accepting to religious change. Unstable government forces most missionaries to give up and bring their families back home, but Nathan refuses to leave until he converts the Congolese to Christianity. He extends their hellish stay. Ironically, the small town that the Price family is stationed in ends up changing the Prices more than Nathan is capable of changing the ways of the town.

The person who seems most changed by the end of the book is...