Co-written, directed by, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman is an unflinching period western exploring the cruel and unforgiving life on the American frontier in the mid-19th century. Based on the 1988 novel by Glendon Swarthout, the story concerns Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank), a New York educator searching for a better life in Nebraska Territory in the 1850s. When a trio of women who suffer from mental illness require Mary’s assistance, she teams up with George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) to escort the afflicted to Hebron, Iowa.