When her sister, Shannon, was killed in a sudden and tragic accident, Courtney rushed to the North Dakota ranch to help the grieving family. Shannon and her husband, Adam, were living in a large historic ranch house named "Northwind." The US Government had bought the property and built a nuclear missile storage site on it. With the Cold War over, the government assigned Adam the task of dismantling the site. Their four-year-old daughter, Megan, loved to ride horseback with her mother and couldn't understand why her mother didn't come home from her recent ride. From her upstairs bedroom window at "Northwind, " Courtney could see the small stone house in the distance. The town gossips described the handsome, dark man who lived there as a wife-beater with a mysterious, violent past and advised Courtney to stay away from him. Her life took a desperate turn when she found herself falling deeply in love with him.