Catherine finds herself stranded in a small western town in the late sixteen hundreds and is rescued by a cattle baron, who hires her to become his wife, for, how ever long he needs her. She ultimately finds that he is a domineering man, who demands obedience and during her struggle with his controlling ways she falls in love with him and finds herself emotionally and physically involved with him even though he prepares to marry another woman.

Jonathan Thornton, the new cattle baron, because, of his father's illness is returning home and stumbles upon a young woman being sold to a brothel and he rescues her and ultimately hires her to marry him in order to keep peace, between he and his father for the two men had a disagreement causing Johnny to leave home five years ago. Now, he finds himself torn, between Catherine the woman he hired to act as his wife, who invades this thoughts during the day and his dreams at night and gives him peace and contentment when he makes love to her and Elizabeth, the woman with whom he is engaged to be married as they have been meeting and writing secretly over the past five years and is use to the life of a man who works twelve or more hours a day in running a ranch as the Bar T.