Milly Lockwood Groves is stuck at her parents' racing stables and stud farm outside Newmarket, her dreams of making it as a champion jockey in tatters. Her father has forbidden her to ride after a fall left her hospitalised - and there's no arguing with him. As a millionaire race horse breeder and bastion of the male dominated racing fraternity, he would prefer Milly took up more ladylike pursuits and left the riding to her brother Jasper. Although Milly has more talent in her left riding boot than the poisonous Jasper will ever have, her family are determined to fill Milly's life with cookery courses and deb's balls in London.

But Milly's life is about to change with the arrival of Bobby Cameron, the most skilled horse-breaker in America. Milly, who previously has had no interest in males of the two-legged variety, develops a passionate crush on the blonde, beautiful Bobby. When Bobby offers her the chance to spend a year on his Californian ranch, it's just too good an opportunity to refuse...