As arable farmland grows scarce, the United States opens up former sections of Indian Territory for homesteading. Those who want to claim land must make a run for it. Should she claim her own land when he has a claim on her heart? Rose Calloway feels guilty about living off her sister’s meager schoolmarm’s wages. In spite of taking in sewing, she sees little future for marriage in a town where people are still struggling from the latest economic depression. Being the younger sister of the formidable Marigold doesn’t help attract suitors, either. She responds to a matrimonial advertisement, and after corresponding for several months, sees great promise for her future with Joshua Kent. Joshua Kent, landless and employed as a farrier, sees promise in the land run planned for the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma Territory. Knowing once he claims his acres, he will need a wife, he places a matrimonial advertisement. He soon decides Rose Calloway is the woman he wishes to marry. However, once he realizes there will be far more applicants than there is available land, he warns Rose he can only marry if he is successful claiming his own plot. Marigold, realizing the land run will bring new families to a new settlement, sees there will be a need for teachers and a chance to achieve her dreams. She decides to make her own land claim and insists Rose claim a plot next to hers. As Marigold prepares to leave for Oklahoma, Rose—homeless unless she marries or goes with her sister—holds a ticket for a land claim in one hand and a letter from Joshua Kent in the other stating, if he is unsuccessful claiming land, he cannot offer marriage. What will she do now?