After a brutal winter, three settlers’ wives have been driven mad by bereavement and financial ruin, and the parish priest needs someone to literally cart them back to a sanatorium in Iowa – the pioneer’s journey in reverse. The job requires a “homesman”: someone smart, strong and trustworthy, who can survive by himself for weeks on the trail. Except no man in town is up to the task so the homesman has to be a homeswoman. Mary Bee (Hilary Swank) grits her teeth and saddles up.