In 1889, Sheriff Cooper Matthew’s life is turned upside down when he suddenly finds himself the legal guardian of a baby girl named Annie. Cooper hasn’t seen his late wife in nearly eight years, but because he’d never obtained a bill of divorcement, her child is legally his. Feeling unfit to raise a child, especially a baby girl, Cooper plans to give her to a suitable family. But before such a family is found, Cooper loses his heart to the blonde, blue-eyed pixie. Though she is not a child of his blood, Annie is the child of his heart. Mary Louise Markham, is a blue stocking from Louisana. Well educated and independently wealthy, Mary Louise is determined never to marry. After all, she says, why should she give up her name, her property, and her freedom for the dubious honor of becoming some man’s live-in servant. But when her dying brother confesses he has a child by a local actress, Mary Louise is determined to find the child and raise it as her own. She later learns that her niece’s mother has also died of the fever and that the child is in Texas being cared for by the Sheriff Cooper Matthews. She assumes the Sheriff will be happy to give up the child and is therefore unprepared for his refusal to hand over Annie. What ensues is a rollicking custody battle between two bullheaded opponents, as they fight For the Love of Annie....