Abstract:
New Yorker, Emily O'Neill, is a schoolteacher for a small ranching community in the Montana Territory. She had accepted the position on a lark––a chance to experience the "Wild West" and witness the birth of a new state in 1889.

When a rancher, Andrew Jones, comes to school at his mother's insistence, Emily must turn him away. His huge size, twenty plus years of age and his nickname, Puddin' Head, makes him a disruptive oddity in the classroom.

Emily agrees to tutor Andrew after school and become an active manager of the ranch. There are lessons aplenty to be learned.