In 1820s New England, Martha Parker was smart, pretty, and ambitious, aspiring to become an educator and a foreign missionary. After accepting a proposal from Thomas Tenney, she later rejected him in favor of clergyman Elnathan Gridley. Tenney's male friends retaliated by sending an anonymous letter to the head of the foreign missions board, impugning Martha's character. As the author of the Parkman Prize winner American Apostles reveals, this act of character assassination provoked a resistance within evangelical ranks over womanhood, manhood, and, surprisingly, homosexuality, ultimately threatening to destroy the foreign missions enterprise.