Summary

The novel opens with a one page prologue, the first sentence: “Hope is a coin I carry: an American penny, given to me by a man I came to love” (1). The unidentified first person voice explains how she came west in search of a better life but the American dream was harder than expected. The land turned on them. The men always talked about making a living and their work, never thinking about the cleaning, cooking, and child-tending the women did in the Great Plains. The first page ends with the sentence, “Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I swear I can still taste the dust . . .” (1). The next page is titled 1921 with an oval frame and black and white picture of tall wheat within the frame, with a quote from Wendell Berry.

Chapter One (just titled One) starts in the third...