Set in Nebraska during the last decades of the nineteenth century, O Pioneers! portrays the growth of a new country and people, showing how during the course of sixteen years a harsh "iron" landscape became a vibrant and beautiful country. The action of the various immigrant groups who helped settle the plains of the Midwest — the Swedes, Norwegians, Bohemians, and French who came to Nebraska in the 1870s and the 1880s lured by the promise of cheap land and fertile soil — is placed in the larger context of the human desire to create civilization in a new landscape. Interwoven into the novel's celebration of the pioneer spirit is another story of very different tenor and tone about the tragic passion of star-crossed young lovers whose desire cannot be controlled by social convention. Although these two main plots were derived from "Alexandra...