Lady Hazel Fletcher's father, fiercely opposed to Scottish independence, means to use her as a weapon in his scheme to instigate trouble between England and Scotland. She is pregnant by her lover, a neighboring nobleman, but her father blames a Scotsman he has deliberately framed. Cormac MacLeod, realizing the trick when he's accused of fathering the child of a woman he's never met, refuses to marry her and is thrown into the dungeon. Allied against her father's treachery, Hazel and the fierce Scot plan to escape together, then go their separate ways. But once free, they find Hazel's lover cannot protect her, and reality hits-they have no choice but to flee to the heart of the Highlands together...