In 1857 naive Matilda Beaumont marries a virtual stranger, a braggart always involved in questionable activities. He abandons her in St. Louis and heads for nefarious anonymity in the New Mexico Territory. When finally recovering from influenza, the pregnant Tildy stubbornly decides to find him and joins freighters headed to Santa Fe.

Attorney and Virginia gentleman Nat Carruthers rescues Tildy from a near-drowning on her wedding day only to be haunted by the young woman’s spirit. Though distancing himself, he keeps track of the Beaumont fortunes, including their departure for Santa Fe. After his partner-brother is shot down, he heads west, too. Now a Comanchero, Ike Beaumont tells Nat that Tildy died back in St. Louis. Nat turns to drinking, card-playing, and gunfights. A wealthy client drags him south to a respectable life despite his dangerous reputation. Nat encounters a very much alive and newly widowed Tildy struggling to survive with a toddler daughter on a desert homestead.

Insisting he is duty-bound because of business with her late husband, a powerful Spanish Don takes Tildy into his household and becomes her overbearing nemesis. As Spanish-American tensions and Apache fears turn the valley into a tinder box, Nat must figure out why the independent-minded Tildy has become the match likely to light a political explosion.