Fleeing trouble in Pittsburgh, young Kara O'Riley has no choice but to travel as far west as her meager funds will take her. And when she is hired as a bookkeeper for a sprawling Texas ranch, she quickly decides that her new employer, Jonathan Catlin, is the coldest, strangest man she's ever known. He tells her he has exactly one year to make the ranch a success - - but she has a feeling there's an awful lot more he's not telling her. For one thing, there's something odd about the Catlin Ranch. For another, she has glimpsed a hint of tenderness in Jonathan's gorgeous, haunted eyes - - and suddenly her lonely, aching heart is filled with fire . . . .