Mari McCabe's life centers around remote Red Canyon, Arizona and her horse training. Her secondary goal is earning her high school diploma. She is troubled by unanswered questions about who she is and how she came to be living as the ward of half-Indian horseman Berne McCabe.
When a controversial construction project starts nearby, her ordered life is shaken by sudden changes. Horse training may be dangerous work, but danger is relative. She learns some relatives can be dangerous indeed and loyalties may be severely tested. Are her little dog and the construction boss she recently met her only real friends?
As superintendent on his first big construction job, Dusty Layne has to prove his capabilities. A chance meeting with a young woman leads to an unlikely friendship. He's single, following a painful divorce, but feels the age gap between them is too great to attempt a relationship. Mari seems to have no such doubts.
When those concerns converge with problems at the site and environmental protests, he confronts a major challenge. How can he reconcile these issues while he saves Mari from the grave danger created by her loyalty to him, especially when he's not sure he can even save her from himself?