Virginia, 1854. Hunter Calhoun, a widower shadowed by the scandal of his wife's death, buries himself in his hobby of breeding racehorses, neglecting his young family. Eliza Fylte has inherited her father's famed gift for gentling horses. And when Hunter arrives with a wild steed, her healing spirit draws her to his shattered family and to the intense, bitter man who needs her, just as she needs him.