Elle's life on her family's farm in the Tetons is filled with everything an adventurous thirteen-year-old girl could want: climbing oak trees, picking berries, and spending time with her brother and sister. Elle can't
imagine a better place to live than on the farm, but when her father's stark disapproval and high expectations cause him to send Elle and her sister away to a boarding school in Virginia, Elle's dreams of a blissful life in the paradise of the Tetons come crumbling down around her.
Determined to be the perfect girl her father always wanted her to be, Elle quickly grows accustomed to her new life as a lady, but as Elle is thriving in Virginia with her adoring aunt and uncle, her new friends, and a handsome suitor, a tragedy on the farm calls her back home and forces her to reconcile her two worlds. Torn between possibilities, Elle must choose whether she wants a life as a proper lady with a respectable gentleman by her side or a life back on the farm with the charming farmhand, who always turns up when she least expects it. But would throwing away her promising future as a lady mean giving up all she was meant to be?