Rachel Somerfield has spent most of her life in Whitman's Home for Orphaned Girls in New York City. As she approaches her eighteenth birthday, her future looks very bleak. Everything changes the day she runs into Mathew Compton, a dashing young man, who sweeps her off her feet and offers her a chance at happiness. However, things don't turn out as Rachel hopes, and she finds herself accepting a teaching position in Sand Hill, a small western town...