The daughter of a prominent Virginia attorney, Ruth Carrington takes a teaching position out west, moving far from her beloved family in search of a new beginning and a way to escape her past. Traveling such a great distance on her own in 1852 is dangerous enough, but what she finds in the little Wyoming town is a lot more than she has bargained for. As she settles into her new adventure, she attracts danger from the town's less-than-desirable bad boy. When she is saved by a hero in a cowboy hat, it is more than her life he rescues-it's also her heart. The local rancher that generally keeps to himself seems to get pulled into drama at every turn because of a pretty little schoolteacher. Even as he battles with the emotions of his own past, he feels compelled to try to protect her against the evil man from her past that tracks her down with only one goal in mind: to destroy her. The true question is, Who is saving whom?