When Loralee arrives at Fort Apache as the new schoolmarm, she has some hard realities to learn and a harsh taskmaster to teach them to her. Shad Zuniga is a proud, aloof, renegade Apache who wants no part of the white man's world, not even its women. Yet, Loralee is driven to seek him out, compelled to join him in a forbidden union--and forced to become an outcast for one slim chance at everlasting love.