Lily returns home to find cars around the ranch and her lovely Patches grown a little older. To mark her return, she jumps on her horse and goes for a ride. She knows she is where she needs to be. Lily does leave for Flagstaff to attend the teacher’s college, but while she’s there, a teaching position in Red Lake opened up and she returns to the small town. Over the years, Red Lake has changed from a sleepy town to a town filled with all types of people, both good and bad.

These changes become evident when Lily picks up her first paycheck. Some men are lounging in the town hall, while a spirited mustang rests outside. The deputies decide to prank the teacher and they tell her she had to ride the mustang before she can have her paycheck. Lily understands what’s going on and uses her horse-breaking skills to get the mustang under control. She rides the horse, shocks the men, and takes her paycheck. She also becomes friends with one of the deputies named Rooster. She plays poker with Rooster and his friends and eventually she even becomes Rooster’s teacher, secretly teaching him to read and write.