Explore the real-world places that appear in Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Fisher Family Farm (Stolzfus-style Amish Farmstead), The Fisher Barn, Lancaster County Courthouse, Lancaster County Prison, Central Market and 6 more.
Paradise, PA — Home of Katie, Sarah, and Aaron Fisher
The Fisher farm is the heart of the novel. A newborn is found dead in the barn, and eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher, who lives here with her father Aaron, her grandmother Sarah, and her brother Samuel, becomes the suspect. Ellie Hathaway comes to live with the Fishers during the case to understand Katie's world and the Plain way of life.
Paradise Township has been farmed by Pennsylvania German Amish families since the 18th century, with the Amish arriving in Lancaster County around 1730. Farms there are traditionally family-run and passed down across generations, using horse-drawn equipment and no public electricity.
The area around Paradise is still active Amish farmland, dotted with working dairy farms and roadside produce stands. The individual farms are private property and not open to visitors, though the countryside can be seen from public roads.
Paradise, PA — Where the infant's body is discovered
The novel begins with the discovery of a dead newborn hidden in the Fishers' barn. Police and Detective Coop investigate, and evidence points toward Katie, who had concealed her pregnancy. The barn becomes the focal point of the investigation and the trial.
Large timber-frame bank barns have been the centerpiece of Lancaster County farms since the 1700s and 1800s, used for livestock, hay, and tobacco storage. Community barn raisings are a long-standing Amish tradition.
Barns throughout the region are working agricultural buildings on private farms. Visitors can see historic barns from public roads or learn about Amish agriculture at heritage sites.
50 N Duke St, Lancaster — Site of Katie's trial
Ellie Hathaway defends Katie here in a trial that pits the Amish community's silence against the demands of the American legal system. Katie's quiet demeanor and Plain testimony clash with prosecutor Jordan St. Clair's aggressive tactics, and the courtroom exposes the differences between the two cultures' ideas of justice and forgiveness.
Lancaster County's court system has operated from downtown Lancaster for centuries, as the city once served briefly as the capital of Pennsylvania. The current courthouse complex includes the 1852 Greek Revival building and later additions.
The Lancaster County Courthouse continues to serve as the county's judicial center. The public may enter to attend open court proceedings, subject to security screening.
625 E King St, Lancaster — Where Katie is held
Katie is detained while awaiting trial, and Ellie visits to build trust with a client who answers questions with silence or Plain phrasing. The stark confinement contrasts painfully with Katie's open farm life and tests her faith and endurance.
Lancaster County Prison on East King Street is a stone fortress-like building dating to the 1850s, designed in the Gothic Revival style with a castle-like appearance.
The building continues to operate as a county correctional facility. It is not open to tourists, though its distinctive exterior can be seen from the street.
23 N Market St, Lancaster — Amish and Mennonite vendors
Lancaster's market culture reflects the setting where Plain and English worlds meet. Amish families sell produce and baked goods, offering a place where Ellie observes the everyday interactions between the Plain community and outsiders.
Lancaster Central Market, established in 1730, is considered the oldest continuously operating public farmers market in the United States. The current Romanesque Revival building dates from 1889.
Central Market remains a bustling farmers market open several days a week, selling produce, meats, baked goods, and crafts from local farmers, including Amish and Mennonite vendors.
Visit: Lancaster Central Market (landmark)
Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) — The town that gives the novel its setting
Paradise is the small town at the center of the story, where English residents and Amish families live side by side. Townspeople, police, and reporters flood the community as news of the case spreads, and Ellie navigates the town while staying among the Plain people.
Paradise Township was settled in the 18th century and sits along the historic Old Philadelphia Pike and Lincoln Highway. The area's name dates to the colonial era and has long been a point of local charm.
Paradise is a small unincorporated village with farms, inns, and shops along Route 30, drawing visitors exploring Amish Country.
199 Hartman Bridge Rd, Strasburg — Tourist window onto Plain life
Although not named in the plot, the tourism of Lancaster County frames the story's outsider perspective. Ellie, a Boston lawyer, arrives as an outsider who must understand the Amish way of life, much as visitors do, before she can defend Katie.
The Amish Village opened in 1968 as an educational attraction in Strasburg, featuring an authentic 1840s Amish farmhouse and other buildings to show visitors how the Amish live.
The Amish Village offers guided tours of the farmhouse, a barn with animals, a one-room schoolhouse, and other exhibits on Amish history and daily life.
Visit: The Amish Village (tour)
301 Gap Rd, Strasburg — Lancaster County's countryside by rail
The rail line passes through the farmland where Katie's story unfolds and is emblematic of the tourist gaze on Amish country. It represents the juxtaposition of modern curiosity with the Amish insistence on privacy and simplicity.
The Strasburg Rail Road, chartered in 1832, is the oldest operating railroad in the United States and runs steam-powered excursions through Amish farmland.
Steam trains run daily on a scenic route to Paradise, with the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the Strasburg Rail Road Station nearby, making it a major attraction.
Visit: Strasburg Rail Road (tour)
Rural Paradise Township — Education in the Plain community
Amish children such as Katie's younger relatives attend one-room schools only through the eighth grade. The schoolhouse illustrates the community's emphasis on practical education, humility, and separation from the wider world, helping Ellie grasp why Katie's upbringing makes the English court so alien.
Amish parochial schools expanded after the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision Wisconsin v. Yoder, which protected Amish rights to end formal schooling after eighth grade.
Dozens of one-room schoolhouses still operate across Lancaster County. They are active schools and not open to the public, though they are visible from public roads.
Hershey, PA — Medical and psychiatric authority
Medical and psychiatric experts are central to the case, debating whether Katie gave birth, whether the infant was alive, and what Katie's mental state was. Their testimony pits scientific English reasoning against Katie's silence and Plain beliefs.
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center opened in 1963 as part of the Hershey chocolate founder's philanthropic legacy, and it became a major academic medical center in central Pennsylvania.
The medical center is a major teaching hospital and research facility serving central Pennsylvania.
Penn Square, Lancaster — Gateway between the Plain and English worlds
Ellie moves between the courthouse and downtown Lancaster during her work on the case. The city's busy streets contrast with the quiet farm, underscoring her sense of crossing between two cultures and between her old life and the one forming in Paradise.
Penn Square has been the civic center of Lancaster since the 1700s and is anchored by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, erected in 1874.
Penn Square is a lively downtown plaza with shops, restaurants, and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, within walking distance of Central Market and the courthouse.
Visit: Penn Square (monument)
More by Jodi Picoult: All Jodi Picoult books
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