Helen Ross, a twenty-nine-year-old biologist, is sent to a sleepy Rocky Mountain ranching town to defend a pack of wolves from those who want to destroy them. For a century ago in Hope, Montana, the wolf was slaughtered to extinction and though now protected by law as an endangered species, the old hatred runs deep.
Alone in this hostile place, bruised by a broken love affair, Helen struggles for self-esteem and survival, embarking on a dangerous alliance with the son on her most ferocious opponent, the brutal and charismatic rancher, Buck Calder.