Here are poems of modern day survival, set in Los Angeles. The woman of the title (from a story by Mary Austin) provides an image for the poet of one who 'came and went about our western world', establishing a saving relationship with the land. The urban poet grapples with the themes of her life: her dying father, never able to use his teaching credentials; her own adjunct teaching position in the L.A. community college system, full of overcrowding, layoffs, and her beautiful immigrant students; the South Central riots, a forest fire, a flood, and an earthquake complicating her labours; her friend a woman climber who dies of a heart attack in the emergency room; her improbable lover who brings plants and flowers, beer and confusion; and always the return to the land.