Handsome plantation owner Wesley Stanford would barely recall thepoverty-stricken young girl named Leah Simmons who adored him from afaryears ago. Now, in an unexpected twist of fate -- a chance encounter on theVirginia riverfront -- he will become Leah's reluctant husband. Determinedto forge a new life in untamed Kentucky, Wesley discovers that the bride hehopes to abandon is passionate, proud, and brave -- and may be the woman he cannot live without.