When Clara Dove takes the stagecoach West to begin her new job as school teacher in a ranching town, she little realizes the fate that awaits her. First she meets Early Cummings, loner, cattleman, and secret dom, with a yen for tying women up, who spirits Clare to his home. Clara thinks she hates Early for the things he makes her feel, as she responds to being dominated. But she begins to realize there are much worse men in the West when she is stolen from Early by cruel rapacious outlaws. Now that it is too late, Clara knows she has come to love Early. And Early, who has learned the same, is searching for her. But the west is big and even the intrepid cowboy thinks the odds are hopeless.