Sarah, Plain and Tall — 5-Minute Cram Guide | Last Night Study
1 · Quick Overview
Author
Patricia MacLachlan
Setting
Prairie farmland · late 1800s
Point of view
1st person (Anna)
Narrator
Anna Witting (older daughter)
Historical context: In the late 1800s, widowed farmers on the American prairie sometimes advertised in newspapers for a wife — a woman willing to come west, marry, and help raise a family. Women who answered these ads were called "mail-order brides." This was a practical arrangement born of frontier hardship. Sarah, Plain and Tall is based on this practice and inspired by a real family in MacLachlan's own history.
2 · Characters
Anna Witting
Narrator · Older daughter · ~10 years old
Anna tells the story. She remembers her mother, who died the day after her brother Caleb was born. She is cautious and watchful — she wants Sarah to stay desperately but is afraid to hope too much. She pays close attention to every sign of whether Sarah is happy on the prairie.
Caleb Witting
Younger brother · ~5–6 years old
Caleb never knew his mother — she died the day after he was born. He is openly emotional and asks questions Anna is afraid to ask. He asks Sarah constantly if she will stay. He loves to sing and asks Sarah to teach him songs. His openness is a contrast to Anna's guarded hope.
Jacob Witting
Father · Prairie farmer · Widower
A quiet, hardworking farmer who has raised Anna and Caleb alone since his wife died. He places an ad in the newspaper for a wife. He is not demonstrative, but his care for his children is clear. He and Sarah are cautious with each other — both practical people feeling their way toward something new.
Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton
Protagonist · From Maine · Answers the ad
Sarah comes from the coast of Maine, where she has lived her whole life near the sea. She is honest, direct, capable, and unsentimental. She describes herself in her first letter as "plain and tall." She misses the sea deeply — this is the central tension of the story. She loves the children quickly, but the prairie is vast and treeless and she is not sure she can make it home.
William (Sarah's brother)
Sarah's brother · Mentioned in letters
Sarah's brother back in Maine. He is getting married, and his new wife will be moving in — leaving Sarah without a place in her own home. This is part of why Sarah answers Jacob's ad. She is not only helping the Wittings; she also needs a new home herself.
3 · Core Themes
1
Belonging and finding home
The central question of the novel is whether Sarah will stay. For Anna and Caleb, home means having a mother and a complete family again. For Sarah, home has always meant the sea and the coast of Maine. The story is about whether the prairie — and the Witting family — can become home for someone who grew up somewhere completely different. By the end, Sarah finds that home is not a place but the people who need you. Exam tip: "What does 'home' mean to Sarah by the end of the story?"
2
Loss and the longing for what is gone
Every character in this novel carries loss. Anna and Caleb lost their mother. Jacob lost his wife. Sarah is about to lose her place in her brother's home and is leaving the sea she has loved all her life. MacLachlan shows that grief does not go away — it is carried. But she also shows that people can build new attachments without forgetting the old ones. Sarah does not stop missing the sea; she finds new things to love alongside that missing.
3
Courage to start over
Sarah answers a stranger's newspaper ad, packs her belongings, and travels alone across the country to a place she has never seen, to live with a family she does not know. This takes enormous courage. Jacob also shows courage in asking for help and being vulnerable enough to place the ad. Both adults are starting over — each carrying their own past, each trying to build something new.
4
Nature as connection and comfort
Sarah brings Maine with her in small ways: she names the farm cats after Maine islands (Seal and Skunk), she collects colored pencils to draw the sea, and she teaches the children about tide pools and sea creatures. The prairie's wide sky and open land eventually begin to speak to her the way the sea did — different, but equally vast. Nature is how Sarah processes both her grief and her growing love for her new home.
4 · Plot Summary
Part 1 — The ad · Sarah's letters · She arrives
Ch. 1–3Papa places the ad · Sarah writes back
Anna begins the story by remembering the song her mother used to sing — a song about summer. Her mother died the day after Caleb was born. The house has been quiet ever since. Papa rarely sings anymore.
One day Papa tells the children he has placed an advertisement in the newspaper for a wife. He has received a letter from a woman named Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, from Maine. He reads it aloud. Sarah writes that she is "plain and tall" — she describes herself honestly, without flattery. She says she has a cat named Seal. She asks if there are flowers on the prairie. Caleb is immediately delighted. Anna is more cautious — she is afraid to want something she might not get.
Papa and Sarah exchange several letters. In one, Sarah says she has always lived by the sea and wonders if she will miss it. In another, she says she will come for one month to see if it suits — if it does, she will stay. She will bring Seal the cat. Caleb counts the days until her arrival.
Ch. 4–5Sarah arrives · First days on the prairie
Sarah arrives at the train station. She is tall, with a yellow bonnet and a bag over her shoulder. She shakes hands with Papa and smiles at the children. She is exactly as she described herself — plain and tall and direct. She brings Seal the cat and a collection of colored pencils.
The first days are careful and observant. Sarah notices everything about the farm and the prairie. She learns the names of the animals. She watches the sky. She teaches Anna and Caleb about the sea — about tide pools, sand dollars, and the smell of salt air. The children are enchanted. But Sarah goes quiet sometimes, looking out across the flat prairie toward the horizon, and Anna wonders what she is thinking.
Sarah brings gifts of colored pencils and draws the sea for the children — blue and grey and green — colors that the dry brown prairie does not have. She names two barn cats Seal and Skunk, after islands in Maine. She is bringing her old home with her, piece by piece.
Part 2 — Growing closer · The fear she will leave
Ch. 6–7Learning together · Anna's fear
Sarah learns to do farm work — she helps with the horses, learns to plow, and works in the fields alongside Jacob and the children. She is strong and capable and does not complain. She sings while she works, and Papa begins to sing again too. The house feels different — warmer, fuller.
But Anna watches Sarah carefully and worries. Sarah talks about Maine often — about the sea, her brother William, the way the light looks on the water. One evening Anna hears Sarah tell Papa quietly that she misses the sea. Anna lies awake afraid. If Sarah misses the sea too much, she will leave — just as their mother left, even if in a different way. Anna is terrified of losing her again.
"I will always miss my old home," Sarah said. "But the truth of it is I would miss you more."
— Sarah, to Anna and Caleb, near the end of the story
Ch. 8Sarah drives to town alone · The longest day
One day, Sarah asks Jacob to teach her to drive the wagon so she can go to town alone. Jacob agrees and teaches her. Several days later, Sarah announces she is driving to town by herself. She does not say why. She is gone all morning.
Anna and Caleb wait in terrible anxiety. Caleb asks Anna over and over: what if she doesn't come back? What if she went to the train station? What if she is going home to Maine? Anna has no answer. The morning stretches on. They watch the road. Papa works quietly but Anna can see he is watching too.
At last Sarah's wagon appears on the road, coming back from town. She has brought something: hair dye — blue and green and gray — and colored pencils. She has been to the store to buy colors that remind her of the sea, so she can draw it. She came back. She always intended to come back. She just needed to go and come back on her own terms — to prove to herself that she was choosing to stay, not trapped.
Part 3 — The storm · Sarah's answer
Ch. 9The summer storm · Sarah sees the prairie
A fierce summer storm rolls across the prairie — dark clouds, wind, and driving rain. The family watches from the barn as the storm passes over. Sarah stands outside in the rain, her face turned up. She is not afraid. She watches the storm move across the wide sky with wonder — the prairie storm is as vast and powerful as the sea. It is the moment Sarah begins to truly see the prairie as something beautiful in its own right, not just as a replacement for Maine.
When the storm passes, the sky clears and a rainbow appears over the fields. Sarah is moved. She tells the children and Jacob that she has never seen anything like it — the space, the sky, the way the storm moved across the land. The prairie is not the sea, but it is immense and alive in its own way.
Ch. 9 — endSarah's answer · She will stay
After the storm, Caleb asks Sarah directly: did she miss the sea today? Sarah thinks for a moment. Then she tells him: yes, she will always miss the sea. But she would miss the children and Jacob more. She has made her choice.
Anna and Caleb are flooded with relief. Jacob smiles — a real smile, the kind they have not seen from him in a long time. The family stands together in the field after the storm, and for the first time since their mother died, the children feel complete. The novel ends quietly, with the family together and the wide prairie sky above them. Sarah, plain and tall, has chosen to stay.
5 · Cram Quiz
Read straight through — all answers are visible. Read once, close the page, walk into the exam.
Q1. Why does Jacob place an ad in the newspaper? What does Sarah's first letter say about her?
A. Jacob is a widower raising two children alone on the prairie. He places a newspaper advertisement for a wife — a common practice for frontier farmers in the late 1800s. Sarah Wheaton of Maine answers the ad. In her first letter, she describes herself honestly as "plain and tall." She mentions her cat Seal and asks if there are flowers on the prairie. She says she will come for one month to see if it suits her, and if it does, she will stay.
Q2. Why does Sarah miss the sea? How does she bring Maine with her to the prairie?
A. Sarah has lived her whole life on the coast of Maine, near the sea. The prairie is flat, dry, and treeless — completely different from everything she has known. She misses the smell of salt air, the colors of the water, and the sound of the waves. She brings Maine with her by naming the barn cats after Maine islands (Seal and Skunk), drawing pictures of the sea with colored pencils, and teaching the children about tide pools and sea creatures. These small acts keep her old home alive while she builds a new one.
Q3. Why does Anna watch Sarah so carefully? What is she afraid of?
A. Anna's mother died the day after Caleb was born. She knows what it feels like to lose a mother, and she is afraid of losing someone again. She watches every sign — when Sarah goes quiet, when she talks about Maine, when she says she misses the sea — looking for clues about whether Sarah will stay or leave. Her fear is not just about Sarah leaving; it is about the wound of her mother's absence reopening. Anna wants to hope but is too scared to hope fully.
Q4. Why does Sarah drive to town alone? What does it mean that she comes back?
A. Sarah asks Jacob to teach her to drive the wagon and then drives to town alone one morning without explaining why. Anna and Caleb are terrified she has gone to the train station to leave. When she returns, she has bought colored pencils and hair dye in sea colors — blue, green, and gray. She did not go to leave; she went to buy things that would help her feel connected to the sea while living on the prairie. More importantly, she went alone so that she was choosing to come back on her own terms — proving to herself that she was staying by choice, not obligation.
Q5. How does the summer storm change Sarah's feelings about the prairie?
A. A fierce storm rolls across the prairie and Sarah stands outside in the rain watching it. The storm moves across the wide, open sky with the same vastness and power she loved in the sea. It is the moment she begins to see the prairie as beautiful on its own terms — not as a poor substitute for Maine, but as something immense and alive in a different way. The rainbow that follows the storm moves her deeply. The prairie will never be the sea, but it has its own grandeur.
Q6. What does Sarah say when Caleb asks if she missed the sea? Why is this the key moment of the novel?
A. Sarah tells Caleb that yes, she will always miss the sea — but she would miss the children and Jacob more. This is the key moment because it is Sarah's direct answer to the question the whole novel has been building toward: will she stay? Her answer is honest — she does not pretend the sea doesn't matter — but it shows that her love for the family has grown stronger than her longing for home. She is choosing them. This is what Anna has been waiting and hoping for throughout the entire story.
Q7. What is the significance of the title "Sarah, Plain and Tall"?
A. The title comes directly from Sarah's own description of herself in her first letter to Jacob. She writes that she is "plain and tall" — a simple, honest self-description with no flattery or pretense. The title reflects Sarah's character: she is straightforward, unpretentious, and honest about who she is. It also sets up the story's quiet tone — this is not a dramatic romance but a plain, honest story about ordinary people trying to build a life together.
Q8. Essay question: How does MacLachlan use the sea and the prairie to develop the theme of belonging?
A. Use three points: (1) The sea as Sarah's first home — everything Sarah brings to the prairie (the cat names, the colored pencils, the stories about tide pools) shows how deeply she is rooted in Maine. Home, for her, has always meant the sea. (2) The prairie as a new language — gradually the prairie begins to speak to Sarah: the wide sky, the storm, the open fields. It is not the sea, but it offers the same kind of vastness she loved. (3) The family as the true home — Sarah's final answer to Caleb makes clear that home is ultimately not a landscape but the people who need you. Thesis: In Sarah, Plain and Tall, MacLachlan shows that belonging is not about the place you came from — it is about the people you choose to stay for.
About this page: This is an educational summary created for student exam preparation. All plot descriptions are original summaries of the novel's events — not copied text. Direct quotations are clearly attributed.
Quoted works:
· Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. Short quotation used for educational commentary under fair use.
This page is a study aid for students. All quotations are clearly attributed to their original sources. For a richer and fuller experience, we encourage you to read the original book.
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