Frontiers are places where one world meets another. At the edge, each bleeds across, affecting its counterpart. As the American West opened up after the Civil War, settlers poured in, seeking adventure and the promise of a new and better life. They left behind the comforts of civilization to blaze paths into the wilderness. In The Virginian, the civilized East confronts the West, the town confronts the country, and the tame faces off against the wild.

Easterners travel from their cities to the West in search of the wilderness and its excitements. They gape at Indians, stare at wildlife, and ogle cowboys. Though thrilled, they also regard the frontier as primitive and undeveloped; they overlook the subtleties and complexities of territorial life and underestimate the sophistication required to survive in the harsh environment. Even Molly, despite her eagerness to embrace the West’s wildness, still shies from it when it takes the rough-hewn form of the man she loves. His ways differ from those of her snobbish Vermont relatives, and Molly has trouble reconciling her heart with her need to conform to the civilized biases of her hometown.

People arrive by train, then transfer to stagecoaches, and finally travel by horseback and foot to reach their destinations.