Legendary figures of Mississippi's past-flatboatman Mike Fink and the dreaded Harp brothers-mingle with characters from Eudora Welty's own imagination in an exuberant fantasy set along the Natchez Trace. Berry-stained bandit of the woods Jamie Lockhart steals Rosamond, the beautiful daughter of pioneer planter Clement Musgrove, to set in motion this frontier fairy tale. "For all her wild, rich fancy, Welty writes prose that is as disciplined as it is beautiful" (New Yorker).