Raised on an Oklahoma ranch where her father taught her to rope and ride, Tommy Jo Burns knew she was destined for greatness. At fourteen she so impressed Teddy Roosevelt that he dubbed her America's first cowgirl. Filled with dreams of joining a Wild West show, she left her parents to create her own family of friends on the road with Colonel Zack Miller's 101 Ranch Show. It was a new and exciting life so she took a new name: Cherokee Rose.

Cherokee Rose's adventures would bring many different men into her life. She could rope with the best of them and she got tangled with a few: the awkward ranch hand, Bill Rodgers, who emerged on the show circuit as Will Rodgers; a handsome husband who resented her fame; a wealthy gambler who taught her to follow her heart. Filled with the excitement of the unconventional, Cherokee Rose captures the essence of this celebrated woman of the West.