When a distraught doctor can take no more of sickness and death in cholera-ridden New York City, he answers an ad in the Mail Order Brides section of the newspaper, from a woman seeking help on her ranch and friendship; but not marriage. He decides to keep his doctor past hidden, and his inexperience at everything that she had asked for, also hidden. His only worry is that she will find out and give him the boot. Getting help from the young son of a family the rancher woman took in, he begins his journey of deception, not knowing how his life will end up.