The Testament of Ann Lee Overview

Born in Manchester in 1736, Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried) comes to believe as a child that sexual relations are a sin, and when she gets older, although she marries, when all four of her children die in early infancy, she believes that it was because they were conceived through sin.

Along with her younger brother William (Lewis Pullman) and her niece Nancy, she visits the home of a Quaker family and discovers that Quakers believe Jesus's Second Coming will be as a woman. Their beliefs resonate with her, and Ann begins to lead a group of followers, who are eventually called Shakers, as an offshoot of the Quakers. They move to the United States to escape persecution but find that their rituals and teachings draw the anger of their new neighbors.

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