Ira Wagler was born in the small Old Order Amish community of Aylmer, Ontario. One fateful, starless night, seventeen-year-old Ira, frustrated by the rules and restrictions of Amish life, got up at 2 a.m., left a note under his pillow, packed his duffel bag and left. Over the course of the next several years, Ira would leave and return home numerous times, torn between the ingrained message that abandoning one's Amish heritage results in eternal damnation and the freedom and possibilities offered by the "English" world.