Mairi is the object of hate and scorn for Lady Agnes who has never been able to bear a child to term. Mairi discovers her stepmother is having an affair with a member of a rival clan, and Agnes in her rage, commits an unforgivable act of violence upon Mairi. While being tended to by her clan's healer, Mairi becomes delirious, and begs the powers that be for deliverance. The fates have delivered their promise in the form of Finbar MacGowan. Finbar MacGowan is chieftain to Clan MacGowan. The pleas of an impoverished rival chieftain to marry his daughter intrigue him, and he decides to take him up on his offer. However, he is plagued by visions and dreams of a scarred maid with a gentle heart–a carrier of two dark secrets. She is calling to him, but is the maid he is sworn to marry one and the same woman?