After their son, Sam dies tragically in a truck crash, Duane and Gladys are stunned. The outgoing, amiable Sam was a major part of their lives. He lived and worked on their small Idaho riding facility and was loved by his students. A friend of his, Turk, is a Viet Nam veteran, as Sam was, and Turk tries to console the couple.

Gladys decides they need an "adventure" to stir things up a little, so she and her husband Duane buy the unknown contents of a storage unit. To their surprise a Palomino is tied to the unit's door handle so they buy the horse also. The horse owner turns up to ask for a job at their arena so she can be near her horse. A sleazy businessman follows her trying to get her belongings. Turk tries to hide his feelings for the horse owner, Teresa, but keeps them hidden. She becomes part of the family in a most unusual way.

A retiring police officer finds disturbing facts about Sam's accident, which he declines to share with Duane and Gladys, till he separates truth from fiction in the way the accident happened. A local vet and the police officer's wife team up to save the day.