This collection of biographies portrays eighteen women with diverse cultural and social backgrounds who have made important but sometimes unrecognized contributions to Utah's story, past and present. They range from participants in Utah's early history such as Mormon midwife Patty Sessions and African American pioneer Jane Manning James to modern figures such as community activist Esther Landa and prominent author and historian Helen Zeese Papanikolas. The other women portrayed include actress Maude Adams, school and hospital founder Mother M. Augusta (Anderson), theater and teaching pioneer Maud May Babcock, poet Sarah E. Carmichael, Ute leader Chipeta, silver queen Susanna Bransford Engalitcheff, legislator Alice Merrill Horne, Greek midwife Georgia Lathouris Mageras, socialite and builder of one of Salt Lake City's finest houses Elizabeth Ann McCune, United States Treasurer Ivy Baker Priest, Ladies Literary Club founder Eliza Kirtley Royle, artist Mary Teasdel, journalist Kuniko Muramatsu Terasawa, and Park City madam Mother Urban.