Varmints and strangers best steer clear of this Winchester-toting redhead.

Working alongside her grandpa on his Arkansas tenant farm, Rose Linwood learned to love the land as much as he did. Now her older sisters have married and moved on, Grandpa has gone to his eternal reward, and Rose is determined to make a go of the farm on her own.

But crops have been slow to recover since the drought of 1930-31, and the whole country struggles in the grip of the Great Depression. Drifters looking for work or handouts roam the countryside, some of them up to no good, so Rose keeps her trusty Winchester rifle at the ready.

Caleb Wieland isn't the farmer his late father was. He'd let the farm go and search for work he's more suited for, except he can't desert his widowed mother. Besides, he's been quietly falling in love with Rose since they were in grammar school, but her stubborn independence is proving as thorny as the flower for which she's named.