In 1938, with the help of a doctor and her elderly, horse-thieving father, a seventeen-year-old orphan steals thirteen horses from Chickalookee, Florida's doomed rodeo and finds a family in the process.
In far west Texas, Phoebe's upbringing as a southwestern belle who can also rope and ride equips her to square off against the meanest, dirtiest, and most ill-mannered cowpokes in the territory.