The story follows Jane Withersteen, a ranch owner on a purple-sage Utah plateau, as she navigates growing tensions between her Mormon community and Gentile outsiders while protecting an orphaned girl and a valued rider. Community elders press for the expulsion of the rider Venters, testing loyalties and exposing jealousy and authority within the settlement. Against a backdrop of vivid western landscapes, masked figures, rustlers, and violent encounters complicate relationships and law, while questions of faith, compassion, and personal freedom drive choices and alliances. Action, moral conflict, and frontier romance unfold through a sequence of confrontations and revelations.