In 1893, as the western United States opened to settlement, Victorian values still prevailed, yet women were allowed to homestead alone. Amanda Grace Baker, a smart and independent young woman, left her widowed father and siblings in Iowa to start a new life in the Oklahoma Territory.
Along the journey, she gains both allies and adversaries, forming lasting friendships with a widow, her two sons, and a handsome cowboy who come to respect her strength and self-reliance. Grace masters survival skills - from carpentry and well-digging to hunting and cooking rattlesnake - and supposts herself through bartering and ingenuity.








