Lady Daniela has never taken a full human servant. At two hundred years, she's always put it off, having a bachelor's attitude toward bonding with another, even an inferior human. However, on her return to her sheep station in Western Australia in 1953, she meets Dev, a war veteran and laconic bushman, who has the talents to help her reclaim her station from her mother's lover, who usurped her position there forty years before. But after she takes care of that nasty bit of business, she's also intending to rid Western Australia of a corrupt Region Master who is 500 years old and therefore over twice her age and strength. While a full human servant, particularly one with Dev's unique talents, can augment her skills and resources, the more she gets to know him, the more reluctant she is to bind him to her in a way that might get him killed. But Dev has his own thoughts on the matter, and she will soon find it's easier for a vampire to survive in the desert sun than for her to survive without him by her side.