Love and Rodeo Dust
Linc Newhall, itinerant cowboy and sometime rodeo rider, finds work on the Burton Ranch in Colorado owned by the wealthy and powerful L.B. Burton.
But no sooner is Linc hired than he finds himself at odds with Bobby McCarran, the local rodeo champion and would-be suitor of L.B Burton’s daughter, Laurie.
When Linc meets Laurie at a bar in town, he is immediately smitten. Their mutual spark cannot be denied, and soon they fall in love and plan to build a life together. Hoping to quelch their budding romance, L.B. Burton has Linc fired.
Wanting to make enough money to build a small ranch on land left to him in Montana by his mother, Linc takes up rodeo riding. With the help of Ben Cruthers, a former rodeo champion and friend of Linc’s diseased father, Linc develops his bronc riding skills.
In spite of the efforts of Burton, Linc and Laurie continue to have a clandestine affair and then elope. However on Burton’s orders, the newlywed couple are rousted from their honeymoon bed and Linc is arrested for statutory rape as Laurie has not reached eighteen and needs a parent’s consent to marry.
Burton gives Linc a choice: face charges or join the Marine Corps.
Returning after four years in the Marines, Linc can’t find Laurie and learns that she and Bobby McCarran are engaged. Determined to win Laurie back, Linc perfects his riding skills and is soon winning riding events. But his success is short lived. Bobby McCarran with two cowboys assault Linc and smash his knee so he can never ride in competition again.
The morning of Laurie and Bobby’s wedding, Linc slips into the ranch before the ceremony and confronts L.B. Burton. During a tumultuous meeting that follows, secrets, bigotry, and infidelities are brought to light.
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