Maggie Jones, another schoolteacher at the local school who first takes in Victoria, but Victoria leaves because of Maggie's father's behavior.

Raymond and Harold McPheron, bachelor farmers who give Victoria a home and care for her.

She later comes to live with the McPherons. Maggie Jones allows her to live with her until she is frightened by Jones's senile father.

When Victoria becomes pregnant, her alcoholic mother forces her to leave the house. Victoria Roubideaux, one of Tom's teenage pupils.Ike and Bobby, Tom's young sons that struggle with the abandonment of their mother.Tom Guthrie, a history teacher whose wife is growing more distant and disturbed.She introduces Victoria to the McPheron brothers, and has a romantic relationship with Tom. Maggie is the link between many of the other characters and strands of the novel.

The book follows several stories of families in a small town in eastern Colorado. It is the first of a trilogy, the remaining two novels being Eventide and Benediction. The novel was adapted in 2004 into a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie on CBS. The title comes from a type of unadorned music sung in Christian churches, and is a reference to both the Great Plains setting and the simple style of the writing. Set in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado, it tells the interlocking stories of some of the inhabitants. Plainsong is a bestselling novel by Kent Haruf.

Plainsong by kent haruf review