When Jean Sinclair's parents are killed in an accident she travels from the US to Scotland to trace her family roots, despite the severe disapproval of her fiance, Don. There she meets Adam Crawford, a handsome but arrogant landowner and, despite her initial and intense dislike, has a tempestuous physical union with him one night at a glamorous highland ball. Devastatingly, and cruelly, he immediately rejects her. Broken-hearted and confused, she flies back to Texas, only for Don to treat her with a sudden and terrifying harshness. Adam follows her to America, where the two men confront each other violently and Jean has to face the possibility that her parents' deaths might not have been accidental, and that brutality and fear might well force her into a loveless future.