A Chicago newspaper heiress and social celebrity, Eleanor “Cissy” Patterson, pulls into Jackson Hole on a horse-drawn wagon with her daughter Felicia and her French maid. An accomplished horsewoman and a big game hunter, Cissy settles in for a stay. Cissy is introduced as Countess Gizycka, a title she retains even though she is on the rebound from a disastrous marriage to philandering Russian count, Josef Gizycki. Her internationally publicized divorce from Gizycki is finalized a few months before her trip to Wyoming.