Orphaned by prairie scavengers on the High Plains of Kansas in 1881, Lonnie Ryan is determined to make a living off the land. It's a hardscrabble life, but she hangs on. And then one day more trouble arrives at the farm: Toby Markham, fleeing the notorious Barstow gang. They put a bullet through his shoulder, but he escaped. Now it's up to 17-year-old Lonnie to nurse Toby back to health even as she faces new threats: a bounty hunter, a banker set on taking her farm, the knowledge that a vicious outlaw gang may track Toby to her place. And also face the assault on her emotions as the wall she built to live behind is slowly eroded by a a young man who seems to understand her better than she does herself.