In 1980 Marie Rossi is an awkward transfer student, who longs for independence from her overbearing mother. Marie wants to be her own woman, prove herself in the rodeo arena, and earn her English degree. It all adds up to one thing: freedom. She has no time for the likes of handsome and self-assured rodeo champ, Santiago Rivera, her college rodeo teammate. Despite their differences, they discover that they share the same passions, hopes, and dreams for the future. Their promises of forever are shattered when they are torn apart by deception, coercion, prejudice, and war. Forced to leave the woman he loves, a week before graduation Santiago enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps, finding himself in Beirut Lebanon just before the bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983. Wounded in the blast, he's unaware that Marie has given birth to his child. When they meet again, they are changed people with old secrets and new wounds, who must overcome inner strife and rediscover each other in order to become a family.