Cheney Duvall has proved herself as a true doctor to those 200 brides with whom she traveled to the West. But arrival in Seattle with a string of medical successes does not open any doors for her. Returning to the East, she finds an invitation to a remote spot in the Ozark mountains where there are no doctors at all. But she runs into walls of illiteracy, superstition, and immovable distrust of Yankees. 368 pp.