Driven to distraction by an insufferable suitor, Ruth Collins decides to escape his attentions for the summer by accepting her uncle's long-standing invitation to visit his cattle ranch in the West. She invites her best friend, Bella Rockler, to be her companion and they board a train headed West. By the end of the long rail journey Ruth, detesting everything she has seen, heard, or smelled west of Chicago, is in a very bad temper. So bad that she is starting to wonder if the cure isn't worse than the disease. To cap it all off, a fellow passenger on the train, whose appearance and odd behavior earned her instant dislike, got the best room at the hotel. Unbeknownst to Ruth and Bella, Ruth's uncle has hired that very man, a sometime lawman and scourge of rustlers and other lowlife called John McNulty, to keep his niece and her friend from getting into trouble while visiting his ranch. Having seen the two young, Eastern ladies in the car and suspecting they are to be his charges, he regrets taking this job, even though the fee he had demanded was, to say the least, extravagant. Once at the ranch, Ruth vows to take action to mitigate her unhappiness, struggling to hide her emotional state from her uncle and her vow from him and Bella. Then Ruth finds herself, in short order, thrice beholden to McNulty. Drawn together by the obligations and common interests, repelled by prejudice and duty, they orbit each other warily until McNulty's plan comes to fruition with unforeseen consequences.