Most readers meet Elisabeth Elliot already formed: the composed widow of Through Gates of Splendor, writing with authority about suffering. This biography goes back to the woman before that.

Drawing on Elliot's own unpublished journals and letters, Ellen Vaughn tells the story of her early life, her years in Ecuador, her marriage to Jim Elliot and her widowhood, and she lets the uncertainty and the arguing with God stand rather than smoothing them out. The first volume of an authorized two-part life.