The inheritance of the fruit farm in Central Ortego meant a way out for Jeannie Fraser, an escape for her young brother and sister and herself from dependence on their mean and cruel stepfather. Now they were free! Or were they? Would their stepfather let the children go? Jeanie took no chances and virtually kidnapped them. Soon they were all happily settled at Strathlachan, and Jeannie even found her initial dislike for the manager, Fergus MacGregor, beginning to turn to the very opposite. But always there was the fear that their stepfather would track them down. Yet it was not their stepfather who found them, but the beautiful, unscrupulous Cecily Chalmers, who knew all about Jeannie’s past and was quite prepared to use it as a threat to win Fergus for herself ...