The first novel in Willa Cather's acclaimed Great Plains Trilogy, followed by The Song of the Lark and My Antonia.

At the turn of the twentieth century in the prairies of Nebraska, Alexandra Bergson, a determined, capable young woman, inherits the family farm when her father dies early, exhausted by his attempts to make his land fertile. In spite of her brothers' doubts, Alexandra's ambitious vision for their land comes to fruition, but the price of her success appears to be a quiet, small life without the companionship most people crave.

Soon, though, the equilibrium of country life is threatened: Marie Shabata's unhappy marriage is thrown into stark relief by the return of Alexandra's brother Emil, and the Bergson family as a whole is forced to reckon with the unexpected return of Alexandra's childhood confidant, the urbane and cosmopolitan Carl Linstrum. O Pioneers! is at once a love letter to the Nebraskan landscape and the tale of a remarkable heroine, whose strength of character in the face of tragedy made this novel an instant classic.