William Forrest's Plainswoman is a story about a woman named Nora and how she overcomes her fears about living in the plains.
Nora is afraid of starting a family life and living in a ranch outside New England where she was used to being in the midst of comfort and leading a different type of life.
When Nora had a baby growing in her, she didn't tell her husband Rolf right away as she thinks that he might not be a good father.
On her way going to the ranch, a baby was born on a train and when she told Rolf, he was thinking about the round-up of the ranch. This worried Nora even more.
She delayed telling her husband the news as event after event, something bad occurred, each playing a role how the story turned out to be.
Nora's fear about her safety and the baby resulted her to long for home, imagining her return to New England.
An important turning point in Nora's life came when she decided to cut Pleny's finger off (if Nora didn’t chop it off, Pleny could have died). This was when Nora found the inner strength to do what must be done.
In the end, she learned how to laugh. She stopped worrying about what could go wrong and what good could happen, showing she had overcome her fears and became a Plainswoman.
Of interest, see the list of 100 novels everyone should read, featured at The Telegraph.