[1] The novel is told from the perspective of an elderly spinster named Mattie Ross, who recounts the time a half century earlier when she was 14 and sought retribution for the murder of her father by a scoundrel, Tom Chaney.

Six years later, in 1975, Wayne reprised his Academy Award-winning role as the tough hard drinking one-eyed lawman in the sequel film Rooster Cogburn.

She recounts the story of her adventures fifty years earlier, in 1878, when she undertook a quest to avenge her father's murder by a drifter named Tom Chaney.

Mattie hears that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous "Lucky" Ned Pepper and wishes to track down the killer.

Cogburn and LaBoeuf take a dislike to each other, but after some haggling, they agree to join forces in the hunt, realizing that they can both benefit from each other's respective talents and knowledge.

In 1969, the book was adapted as a screenplay by Marguerite Roberts for the Western film True Grit directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Kim Darby as Mattie Ross, Robert Duvall as "Lucky" Ned Pepper, Glen Campbell as LaBoeuf, Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney, and John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn (a role that won John Wayne Best Actor at the Academy Awards).

A film sequel, Rooster Cogburn, was produced from an original screenplay in 1975, with John Wayne reprising his role, and Katharine Hepburn as an elderly spinster, Eula Goodnight, who teams with him.

In 2010, Joel and Ethan Coen released another film adaptation of the novel, also entitled True Grit, with thirteen-year-old actress Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, veteran actor Jeff Bridges playing Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon as LaBoeuf, Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned, and Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney.

[6] In November 2010, The Overlook Press published a movie tie-in edition of True Grit, featuring an afterword by Donna Tartt to accompany the 2010 film adaptation.