Frontier life through the eyes of Sarah Agnes Prine, a rancher's wife in Arizona who has to deal with Indians and outlaws, rifle in hand. Stuck in a loveless marriage, her romantic life picks up when her husband dies and she meets an army captain. Told in the form of a diary and based on a real-life person.

Draws on the true stories of the author's grandmother to continue the tale of turn-of-the-twentieth-century pioneer Sarah, whose efforts to survive in the Arizona Territory are challenged by drought before a stagecoach accident puts her in the path of three strangers.