"There was nothing but land...the material out of which countries are made." ntonia Shimerda, Bohemian immigrant and embodiment of the American myth, arrives in this Nebraska prairie to carve a better life from the virgin plain. Her family's tragic quest, battling unexpected dangers and the unyielding soil, is redeemed by ntonia's own private triumphs. She becomes, for Jim Burden, a reminder of the untarnished landscape of early American history and the clear, undaunted human soul.