At the age of ten,
Jim Burden travels by cross-country train to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska frontier. He has just recently lost both his parents, and he is accompanied by a farmhand named Jake. On the same train is a Bohemian family that barely speaks English and that is going to the same place. When Jim arrives at the station, he is greeted by Otto Fuchs, an Austrian desperado cowboy.
Jim's grandparents are kindly people with simple religious beliefs and very generous natures. Jim enjoys the wide expanses of the frontier, with all its insects, prairie dogs, and vegetation. At this point in the year it is still summer. Soon the Burdens go to meet their Bohemian neighbors, the Shimerdas, who were forced to pay too much for their farm by the only other Bohemian man in the country, Peter Krajiek. Jim meets
Mr. Shimerda, an educated musician who is very kindly;
Mrs. Shimerda, a shrewish woman who is complaining and demanding; the oldest son Ambrosch, who is a stubborn, stingy brute; Marek, a mentally challenged boy; and Yulka, a young and pretty girl. The oldest daughter Ántonia also comes running up to him, grabs his hand, and they go sprinting into the fields.
Ántonia and Jim instantly become friends, and they spend a lot of time together outdoors, with Jim teaching her English. The Shimerdas are not doing very well in their new country, but they do become friends with two Russian men, Peter and Pavel. The Burdens try to help out as much as they can. One day during the end of summer, Jim kills a huge snake and impresses Ántonia, who had been treating him with condescension.
Soon, winter comes. Jim gets very sick, and Pavel dies, after unburdening his heart with a horrible story from his past. Mr. Shimerda becomes depressed after Peter moves away. The Burdens celebrate Christmas at home and make presents for each other since they cannot get into town to purchase some. Mr. Shimerda comes to thank the Burdens for his family's gifts and ends up spending the day with them.
In the middle of the biggest snowstorm in ten years, Mr. Shimerda shoots himself after arranging himself neatly in the barn. Jake suspects that Krajiek killed Mr. Shimerda, but nothing is ever proven. The day afterwards, Jim is left in the house by himself, and he senses Mr. Shimerda's spirit resting on his way back to his homeland. The Shimerdas insist that Mr. Shimerda be buried at the corner of their property, where eventually a crossroads will be. The funeral ceremony is very moving though somewhat disorganized.
Afterwards, the Burdens and other neighbors make a concerted effort to help the Shimerdas. Ántonia begins farming in the fields like a man and gives up going to school. Jim is resentful that Ántonia no longer spends as much time with him, and the Burdens and the Shimerdas get into a little feud because of Ambrosch's bad behavior. The Shimerdas do not act very grateful for the help that they receive from their friends. Eventually, however, everyone is reconciled.
After three years in the country, Jim's grandparents move to the town of Black Hawk so that Jim can go to school. Ántonia also comes into town to work for the Harlings in their home. Other immigrant country girls also start working in the town, and they become known as the hired girls. Jim spends a lot of time with Ántonia and the Harling children, who form a happy household. Dancing becomes the craze in Black Hawk, and Ántonia starts going all the time. When the Harlings ask her to stop going because she is getting a bad reputation, Ántonia quits and starts working for
Wick Cutter, a notorious philanderer. During this time Jim is antisocial and only spends time with Ántonia and the other hired girls. He studies a lot in preparation for college and wants to leave Black Hawk as soon as poe.
At college in Lincoln, Jim becomes very close to his Latin instructor and mentor
Gaston Cleric. They spend a lot of time talking intimately, although Jim realizes that he is not an academic as Gaston is. One day
Lena Lingard, one of the hired girls, comes to visit him, and they start going to plays together. They spend a lot of time together, even though two other men in Lena's building are in love with her. Gaston Cleric notices that Jim is being lax in his schoolwork and asks him to follow him to Harvard. Jim agrees and says goodbye to Lena.
Two years later, before entering law school, Jim returns to Black Hawk, where he hears about Ántonia. Apparently Ántonia had gotten pregnant and was engaged to be married to Larry Donovan. She followed him to Denver, but he ran off soon after she arrived. She returned to her family's farm where she had her child, avoided people, and worked the land. Jim goes to visit her and tells her how much she means to him. She is a little surprised that Jim is not disappointed in her. Jim promises to return again to visit.
