Patricia "Patch" Kendrick arrives in Oak County, Tex., from Fort Benton, Mont., to claim Ethan Hawk, a man who jokingly promised to marry her eight years earlier when he was a 25-year-old running from the law and she was the precocious 12-year-old daughter of a man who befriended him. Patch has transformed herself from a tomboy into a well-bred woman, but Ethan's position remains largely unchanged. Though he was eventually caught and jailed for murder, he has been stalked since his release by the father of a woman he allegedly raped. Ethan swears he found Merielle after the rape and that he killed in self-defense. Merielle can't shed light on those events because since the trauma she has had the mind of a child. Ethan pretends he's not in love with Patch as she attempts to clear his name in a manner that demonstrates that under the veneer of high society remains a core of will and assertiveness. But that spirit is contradicted when she says things like "You'd never rape a woman, Ethan . . . You wouldn't have to."