Valerie Rochelle was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but as she grows up she is made to feel like an outsider always looking in at the perfect world of her parents. Gangly, tomboyish and shy, she's not pretty, popular or social enough to satisfy her family. For friendship and love she turns to animals with whom she develops quick and special bonds. She defies her family's wishes and trains as a veterinarian and, at the same time, she blossoms into a strikingly beautiful young woman and attracts Teddy de Mornay, a charming, handsome and popular young man who her family considers the ideal match for their daughter. While practising as a vet in the country, Valerie comes to the conclusion that Teddy isn't the man she thought he was. She meets Wyn Conrad, a mysterious stranger with a dark secret who is proprietor of Stonelair, a horse farm. They fall in love but their happiness is threatened from all sides. Unknown to them, Wyn's soon-to-be ex-wife will stop at nothing to see them both dead, as will his righthand man, Santo, and one of Valerie's colleagues has reasons of her own to murder them both - as well as Teddy.