Kimberly Varadi

The Work and The Glory: American Zion sets the story of the fictional Steed family against the historically factual backdrop of the Mormon people's move into the West. Divided by their diverse reactions to a nascent ideology, the Steeds struggle to hold together as the strength of their convictions and their filial bonds are tested.

Recently moved to upstate New York from the comfort of their Vermont homestead, the Benjamin Steed family makes their way into the established social structure of Palmyra. In their attempt to settle peacefully into the new community they find the help that they have hired to clear their land is at the center of a religious controversy - a controversy that threatens to tear the family apart.