Jack Valentine and Phoebe Honeycutt hate each other on sight when they run into one another by accident on the vast Texas plain. To Jack, who fought for four years in the Union Army against the secessionist South, Phoebe is just another worthless, simpering southern belle. Phoebe, whose life in Atlanta was ravaged by the Union Army Jack so admires, considers Jack a particularly despiable member of a species she detests, yankees.