In Los Angeles, newly credentialed schoolteachers Kim Hutchins and Joyce Goodwin meet at a job fair. Due to their lack of experience and youth, they have difficulty in convincing school districts to employ them. Rosario High School principal Paul Evans reluctantly agrees to give them a trial for one year, but points out that his desert community offers very few attractions for young, educated women. Kim's father, a college psychology professor, is not happy with her choice of location but, Bob, Kim's considerably older boyfriend, encourages her to accept the job. A week before school starts, Kim and Joyce decide to drive together to Rosario. When their car headlights fail in a desolate stretch of desert, a car pulls up and two drunk, middle-aged men try to assault the young women. Kim and Joyce are rescued by a young truck driver, Hank Moore, who chases away the drunks. Hank, who is obviously attracted to Kim, repairs the car's headlights, then returns to his truck where his girl friend Nina is waiting. After moving into a Rosario boardinghouse, Kim and Joyce attend an orientation meeting for new teachers at the high school, where Evans explains that most of the students are children of seasonal farm workers or construction workers and that many are sullen and bitter. Evans expects that one out of three of the new instructors will break under the strain and leave, but emphasizes that the best teachers in the country are shaped by their experience at places like Rosario. Hank traces the women to their boardinghouse and asks Kim for a date. Later, in a bar, Hank tells Kim that he runs his widowed mother's three-hundred acre farm and appears momentarily disturbed when Kim tells him that she has come to teach English at the high school. She adds, however, that she is not a "square." They dance, embrace and fall in love after a week of dating. On the first day of classes, while Kim is being provoked by loutish, older student Roy Nielson, four students enter the classroom and Kim is dumbfounded to see Hank among them. Hank immediately leaves to see his counselor to arrange for a reassignment. Later, after Joyce learns of Kim's dilemma, she tells Kim that she had thought that Hank was at least twenty-five years old. That evening, when Hank comes to the boardinghouse, Kim refuses to see him. The next day, Hank is forced to return to Kim's class when his counselor refuses to alter his program unless the principal orders it. After Hank tells Nina that he wants to end their courtship, he again returns to the boardinghouse and, in order to avoid a scene, Kim departs with him. While Hank pleads with Kim not to leave him, Nielsen and his girl friend see them together. In class the next day, after Nielsen insinuates that Kim and Hank are lovers, Kim sends him to the vice-principal's office. After class, Hank and Nielson come to blows and Nielson is expelled for two weeks. Afterward, Evans tells Kim that he prefers to believe that the rumors about her and Hank are untrue and arranges for Hank to transfer out of her class. When Hank again attempts to see Kim at the boardinghouse, Joyce tells him that Kim's boyfriend Bob is coming to visit her, then threatens to call the police. Hank leaves, but next morning before class, confronts Kim, who tells him that she does not love him. Hank refuses to believe her and asks her to marry him. Later, as Kim leaves the school, Hank jumps into her car, kidnaps her and tells her that they are going to Las Vegas to get married. When their disappearance is reported on the car radio, Hank begins to drive on back roads. After the car is spotted by police units, a chase ensues and Hank, who is armed, threatens to kill them both unless Kim agrees to marry him. When Hank swerves to avoid oncoming traffic and crashes into a pole, neither he nor Kim is badly hurt, but they are taken into custody by the police. Bob and Kim's parents waits in Rosario with Kim's parents while she relates the events to the sheriff and refuses to file charges or testify against Hank. After Evans speaks on Hank's behalf, the sheriff agrees to release him, but Hank must still stand trial for reckless driving and possession of a firearm. Evans tells Kim that she can continue teaching at the school. After Kim and Hank part on friendly terms, Hank goes to his truck and finds Nina waiting for him. Although Kim's parents expect her to return to Los Angeles, Kim tells Bob that she is staying and invites him to visit her again.