The dry plains drew Judy Proctor like a bear to her den...or a moth to the flame. Ranching was her life. The sweat as she branded or "doctored" cattle...the howl of a coyote in the quiet, night air ... half-frozen fingers as she cut the wire to loosen hay bales for hungry cattle scratching for survival in snow-covered land...all of the everyday existence on the ranch was her life. It was where she belonged. It was a lonely life. She had tried to leave the ranch to join the "normal" existence of a talented young woman in the city, but it had never been home. When her parents were killed in an automobile accident, she returned to the family ranch as much because she needed it as it needed her. She faced a lonely life to be shared with no better company than Somegood and Useless, her cow dog and the mottled mutt that were her companions. Kathleen Romero slipped into Judy's life unexpectedly. She came to the plains to write a story. Would she stay because of the real truth she found in the simple drama of husbanding land and animals? Unfortunately, even wide-open spaces can be plagued by prejudice and closed-minds. As the two women struggle to know each other, they must also carve a place for themselves among the country-folk who have been Judy's friends and neighbors her entire life.