Jessamine Stewart has felt rejected for most of her life. Now she is being sent away by the woman who has been her surrogate mother for the past six years. She moves to Texas to start a school and marry a stranger as his mail-order bride. When she arrives, it seems that all has worked out for the best, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize that he’s not attracted to her.

Robert Samuels has a well-ordered routine. He eats at the diner in town three times per day, and he works five days a week at his very own barber shop. When he sends off for a mail-order bride, he expects the woman who comes to be lacking in some way, but Jessie is beautiful and intelligent. He isn’t sure what is making her sad, but he’s determined to fix it. Will he be able to figure out what’s wrong and make her feel better? Or will she always keep the sadness in her eyes?