In the Kansas Flint Hills, in the year eighteen-sixty-nine, women have little hope of finding respectable work outside the home. But, Cassandra Lindsey has a choice. She can either become a working girl in Miss Opal's Saloon or submit to being auctioned off in the first bride auction in Baxter Springs, Kansas. Fearful of men, she chooses to be the bride, reasoning that she could save herself and her little sister, Missy if she had a home. Despite Cassandra's vow to marry for love, she reluctantly agrees to be the bride. Duke Burton has spent the last month looking for a suitable wife. He's a hard working, no nonsense rancher who doesn't need the bother of taking care of a woman and the hassle of kids hampering his life-style. If he needed the affections of a woman, he'd visit Miss Opal's Saloon. But if he doesn't comply with the terms of his stepfather's will, then the ranch will go to his two-sisters, Martha and Emma. After speaking to his lawyer, Manny George, Duke finds that there is no hope but for him to marry immediately. He takes himself off to Miss Opal's saloon, where he reads a notice about a bride auction that is to be held that night. He commiserates with Zeke the bartender at Miss Opal's and imbibes too much. With a little encouragement, from Zeke, he bids on Cassandra and wins her hand with a ten-buck offer. Emma and Martha Burton are jubilant when they discover their brother has married Cassandra. But when Duke discovers that Missy Lindsey, Cassandra's sister, comes along with his bride, he takes himself off to the barn to mull over his fate. While there, Duke overhears a plot to destroy his home. His patience is running thin when he finds that the two disreputable ranch hands, Luther and Jeremiah that he'd hired out of desperation, are plotting against him. When he lays down the law to them, Luther and Jeremiah make plans of their own. Their evil deeds will have a devastating effect on the Burton family.