Bess Streeter Aldrich

After marrying Will Deal and moving to Nebraska, Abbie endures the difficulties of frontier life and raises her children to pursue the ambitions that were once her own.

When Linnie Colsworth comes from the East to visit relatives in Omaha, she is plunged into a wider, more hazardous world than she had ever known. In the wake of the Civil War, land seekers are pouring into the West and displacing the Indian tribes. Not interested in spending her days sewing and serving tea, Linnie travels up the Missouri to deliver a "Dear John" message to her cousin's fiancé, a handsome lieutenant - and suddenly becomes the...