Sarah Levin Cisneros returns from her honeymoon to face a quandary: should she continue school and pursue a career as an advocate of human rights, or should she relegate her life to being Charro Cisneros' wife, raise a family, and settle into the comforts of living as the matron of the gigantic Dos Encinos Ranch? Luisa, wife of Charro's partner, Carlos Resendez, encourages Sarah to do both. After graduation, Sarah becomes a contributing editor to the "San Antonio Express" newspaper. Her controversial articles, strongly flavored with women's rights issues, make Sarah a popular figure among women's rights activists and suffragists.
In an effort to demonstrate to the people of Texas that women are capable of being more than mothers and homemakers, Sarah participates as a working vaquero on a perilous cattle drive. Childbirth burdens Sarah's already packed schedule of writing, speaking, and promoting the suffrage movement.
But while she is away, a tragedy at home rekindles her dilemma. Guilt-ridden from her self-perceived negligence as a wife and mother, should Sarah continue her leadership role as a women's rights activist, or should she return to Dos Encinos to solely be Mrs. Charro Cisneros?