1902 - Maybelleen MacGregor, accused of murder, faces a Texas jury. The charge is unproven, but she is found guilty and sentenced to hang. 1958 - Margaret Dye flees New York City for the family farm in Kentucky and makes a desperate bid to reconnect a link with her great-aunt, Maybelleen.

The story of two memorable women who lived half a century apart, this lyrical novel revives the legend of Maybelleen, a spinster schoolteacher in rural Kentucky who in 1899 shocks the community by going off to Oklahoma Territory with a visiting missionary. They get married, and Maybelleen teaches at a reservation school. But soon, utterly disillusioned with the mission's attempts to suppress the native culture - and with her marriage - she runs off.

On a dark road she collides with Mexican Bill, a notorious outlaw, who becomes the love and passion of her life. Margaret, as a child, was obsessed with the mystery surrounding her great-aunt. Now, through the unraveling of the truth about Maybelleen's life, she comes to terms with her own, at the same time learning about her capacity to love. Maybelleen is the mythical story of two singular women who are linked by ties that bind more fiercely than blood.