Wickedness by Ron Hansen Summary

Wickedness is the story of an extraordinary blizzard in Nebraska. It begins with a young woman on a train who sees a dead frozen body being transported. The story then goes on to describe the effects of the blizzard on various other townspeople. Farmers, visitors, people who disappeared in the snow and were not found until the thaw in spring. There is the story of two children who go home from school and the girl who survives by accepting the boy's coat, though he perishes. In another section, a man murders his wife and children after seeing how miserable they are living, dealing with the cold. The longest story is that of Hattie, the schoolteacher, who is left with two children who live too far from the schoolhouse to go home as the rest of the children...