Judy Alter’s storytelling and impeccable historical research bring the era of the old west alive while highlighting the life of Nebraska's first female physician.

The daughter of a fallen woman, Mattie Armstrong might have lived a life of poverty and failure. But with determination and courage, Mattie escaped her gossiping neighbors and her loneliness to become the first woman enrolled in the medical school in Omaha and then the state’s first doctor on the vast prairies of western Nebraska.

Set against the backdrop of that sparsely settled land at the turn of the twentieth century, Mattie tells the story of a pioneer woman physician. She learned to “read the prairie” and often traveled hours to deliver a baby or pull an aching tooth or set a broken limb. She found romance and disappointment, battles won and loved ones lost, challenges met and opportunities passed. As the years passed, her life took on a richness and quality she would not have found anywhere else or at any other time.

Inspired by the life of Dr. Georgia Arbuckle Fix, Nebraska's first female physician, Mattie offers a realistic and haunting portrait of life on the plains and of a most unforgettable woman.