Glendon Swarthout

A "homesman" is a person charged with taking women who have been driven mad by the conditions of rural life in the 1850's to asylums in the East. Mary Bee Cuddy, an ex-teacher and spinster, who is indomitable, resourceful, and "plain as an old tin pail." Brave as she is, Mary Bee knows she can't make it alone, so she takes along her only available companion: the lowlife and untrustworthy George Briggs.