As she grew up in a Chicago home for orphans, Stephanie Winters was emotionally and physically abused by the group manager, Brian Norton. After a violent confrontation with him on her 18th birthday, she runs away from home, leaving her best friend Valerie Summers alone. In the five years she has been gone, she had no contact with anyone at the home. She buries her emotions and her warm, giving nature and gets a reputation as a no-nonsense medical transcriptionist, a career that keeps her away from people and interactions with them.
Valerie finds her after five years and they resume their friendship, although it is not as open and warm as it had been in the past. When Valerie states her intentions of marrying Brad Montgomery and moving to Colorado, she persuade Stephanie to accompany her to her fiance's family ranch to meet the rest of the family.
Brad's brother, Alex Montgomery, the county Sheriff and rancher, was humiliated by his late wife and has kept his emotions locked away, not making any commitment to another woman. The only people who see his true nature are his brother, Brad, his son, Ethan, the foreman of the ranch, Max, and the housekeeper, Sophie. When his younger brother returns to the ranch with his fiancee, Valerie, Alex is captivated by her friend Stephanie.
As they get to know each other on the visit to the ranch, Alex feels that this woman from Chicago just might be the woman he has been waiting for since his ex-wife died. As they become close, the ice casing around Stephanie's emotions is cracked and she gets to experience a normal relationship between a man and a woman.
When Stephanie's nemesis follows her to Colorado where she's finally found love and a home, her teenage fears surface and threaten her and Alex's happiness. As she overcomes her fear of Brian and the abuse he poured on her in the group home, she can realize her dreams.