The Ballad of Little Jo

A feminist western based on a true story. In the 1800's, Josephine Monaghan, a young woman from a wealthy Eastern family, finds herself pregnant and unwed. Disowned by her parents, and without a home, Jo deposits her child with her sister and heads westward. Almost immediately she discovers the many dangers the newly settled frontier holds for an unaccompanied female. In desperation, Jo makes a risky -- and illegal -- decision: she shears her hair, scars her face and puts on trousers... becoming, in the eyes of the world, a man. (official distributor synopsis)