The Civil War is over. When the preacher advises Ruth Trahern to go out into the world and find her Boaz, she does just that, leaving the Tennessee hills for California. She takes her rifle and a stray dog, and walks to the Mississippi, where a young man who has known her all her life catches up to her. He is a rolling stone and unreliable, but she invites him along. On the way she begins to appreciate his manly qualities, and finds out that he has changed since the war.
