The narrator meets a childhood friend, Jim Burden, now a successful lawyer for a railroad company, while on a train trip crossing Iowa, and they reminisce about growing up in the same small Nebraska town. When Jim says he wonders why the narrator has never written about Ántonia, the narrator makes a pact with Jim that she will write about Ántonia if he will. (In some editions of the novel, Jim is already writing about Ántonia when he meets the narrator.)
Several months later, Jim delivers his untitled portfolio to the narrator's New York apartment; the narrator has written nothing but a few notes here and there on the subject. After deliberating a moment, Jim writes across the cover of his manuscript, "Ántonia." Then, pausing a moment, he impulsively scribbles another word. The manuscript becomes "My Ántonia."
