In 1854, Mary Bee Cuddy is a 31-year-old spinster from New York, a former teacher who journeyed to the Midwest for more opportunity. She is an active member of the small farming community of Loup in the Nebraska Territory and has significant financial prospects and sizable land ownership. She seems strong and independent but suffers from depression and feels isolated. She makes dinner for her neighbor Bob Giffen and sings to him, but when she proposes, he turns her down, saying she is plain looking and too bossy. He leaves to find a wife back east.
After a harsh winter, three women from the community show signs of mental instability due to the hardships they have faced. Arabella Sours loses three children to diphtheria, Theoline Belknap kills her own child after a poor harvest puts her family at risk of starvation, and Gro Svendsen, a Danish immigrant, is in an abusive relationship with her husband and breaks down after her mother dies. Reverend Dowd calls upon one of their husbands to escort the women eastward to a church in Hebron, Iowa that cares for the mentally ill. Mr. Belknap refuses to participate in the lottery to determine who will escort the women; Cuddy takes his place, and the lot falls on her.
While preparing for her journey, Cuddy encounters George Briggs, a claim jumper, who has been left on horseback with a noose around his neck for stealing Bob Giffen’s land while he is away. Scared to make the trip alone, she frees him, and in return demands his help escorting the women. He immediately casts doubt on the job and insists he be free to abandon her at any time. To persuade him, Cuddy tells him that she is mailing $300 to await his arrival in Iowa, but she secretly keeps it with her.