Based on Fern Hill's award winning novel, Charlie's Choice is based on the true life character of Charlotte Parkhurst, who lived her life as a man so she could experience adventures as a "whip" for Wells Fargo and driving stagecoaches for that firm. Though perceived as a man by all, she did not deny her womanhood to the love of her life, fellow whip, Dominic, and she bore him a child who died of snakebite. Heartbroken, Charlie descended into alcoholism and lived for years as a hermit, before finally surfacing to join society. Charlie voted as a man 50 years before the vote for women was legalized. She fought the notion of slavery tooth and nail and was also handy with a gun, fighting bandits as she drove across the primal Old West.
—George P. Saunders