United States

The Brethren told her who to love
In 1953, Isaac King came back from Korea to a world he could neither understand nor tolerate. Within a small farming village of religious polygamists near the Utah/Arizona borders, two young people, Jessica and Isaac fall in love. Jessica, fifteen years old, has lived in the village all her life and knows only the strict rules and doctrines set by the community's hierarchy, The Brethren. At nineteen Isaac, although son of the village leader, is a Korean war veteran, and can no longer tolerate the Brethren's domination. As Jessica is promised by her parents to the village leader as his fourth wife, the lovers know that their only chance of a life together is away from the village; but their plans are thwarted when the Arizona state troops invade the village to put an end to this 'state of insurrection'. Child Bride of Short Creek is based on true happenings during July 1953, when the raid on the community was described as either the smallest civil war or one of the largest domestic police actions in American history, and is a compelling insight into the closed world of religious sects.