Love can take many forms and express itself in any number of ways, as this offbeat drama makes clear. While hitchhiking, Rosalie (Bonnie Bedelia), a young Native American woman, meets Virgil (Ken Howard), a blonde-haired, blue-eyed dreamboat, and she soon becomes infatuated with him. She talks him into giving her a ride back to her home, deep in the New Mexico desert. In order to make sure that Virgil sticks around once they arrive at her place, Rosalie lets the air out of his tires and then breaks one of his legs, keeping him captive while he recuperates. Virgil is trapped with this affectionate but unstable woman until the arrival of a biker, who plans to rob the place.