In the beginning of the book Plainswoman, the character Nora is very unsure of herself. She and her husband moved away from New England to line on a ranch in the west. Her husband, Rolf, was always thinking on how he can provide for the ranch so he had gone to the cattle roundup. While he was away Pleny, one of the workers on the farm, had gone to eat breakfast with her. When he entered the kitchen he would always keep his hand away from her sight because he had gangrene on his index finger. She saw the hand and just turned away from him. He told her," I have come for your help." He wanted her to chop off the finger.
             Then she has a flash back when she was on her way to the ranch. Nora had to sleep in an inn one night but couldn't sleep because she can't get over the fact that she had to share a room with more people than just her husband. While Nora sleeps, she has a panic attack and Rolf had to take her outside the hotel because she was waking up all the people. The next morning when they got back in the train and were on there way something terrible, beautiful, happy thing happened. A woman was in labor in the train and Nora helped a lady give birth. It was a baby boy and everyone that was on the train was asking her what he was going to be when he is grownup. His father, a huge man with a deep voice, said that he was going to work on a ranch like everyone else.
             Nora went and told Rolf that this terrible and beautiful thing just happened and he was just thinking about the round up. She was afraid that he only thought of that and maybe he didn't want to have a child. And inside Nora was a child waiting to be born. She thought he just cared about the ranch and that was it. When she comes back from the flashback she does what had to be done. She told Pleny to go outside and there she got an ax and chopped off the dead finger. After that she started to laugh because she had gotten over her fears and she was...