In this romantic and raw adventure set in the untamed wilderness of Wyoming of 1886, an anonymous college graduate ventures out west where he encounters gun fights, lynching, cattle rustlers, high-stake poker games, Indian attacks, and a brave, honest and imposing cowboy known simply as the Virginian.

Presented as the archetypal, ideal hero of the ‘western’ genre (which was novelised for the very first time in this same book), the Virginian, a foreman at Shiloh Ranch, carries a strong sense of justice. This wins him the heart of independent young schoolteacher Molly Stark, and finds his sworn enemy Trampas at the end of a gun.

The novel developed many of the central tropes and themes of the western, including morality, faith and honour, and it presents its formidable, unforgiving landscape in stunning detail.