Author of 11 books, including a finalist for the National Book award, Ivan Doig is hailed as the "West's preeminent literary novelist" by the Denver Post. When a widowed rancher hires a housekeeper to help with his three young sons, he discovers that she is cheerful and competent. Yet she is concealing a colorful and infamous past. Filled with humor and hardship, Doig's novel sings with what he calls "a poetry of the vernacular."