A working-class teen age boy falls in love with the granddaughter of the richest family in west Texas. They never meet nor speak to each other during high school due to their different economic and social status.

She goes to college; he joins the Marine Corps and serves in Vietnam. His acts of heroism in combat are reported in the local newspaper owned by the Marine's stepfather. She is intrigued by the young man she never met and becomes determined to meet him some day. Five years after graduating from high school, the two finally meet in Hawaii where she falls in love with him.

Their brief courtship and marriage lead the family to welcoming the young man from the wrong side of the tracks to the family and he eventually becomes the heir to the family business empire.