When Mattie's husband dies in a farming accident on their Black Hills, S.D., ranch, she has to step up to the plate (that's what we do around here). Mattie enlists the help of her daughter, a runaway Indian boy, and a hired woman with a dark past. Three chicks and a kid operating an alfalfa ranch already have the cards stacked against them, but then the bully neighbors decide they want the land and will stop at nothing to get it.

It's a violent and moody tale — no fluffy Traveling

—Jennifer Wilson