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