Roberta Shea's forebears carved a cattle ranch out of the Wyoming wilderness. But she does not share in her neighbors' assumption that the pioneers' sacrifices have bestowed upon them the right to exploit the land as they see fit. Roberta has converted her ranch into a rehabilitation center for birds of prey. Locally, she is referred as the eagle lady. She is about to release two juvenile bald eagles whom she has restored to health to join others of this endangered species that winter in a nearby canyon. Her husband, Glenn, a state senator, loves the stubborn woman he is married to, but he wishes she could be a bit more politic when it comes to denouncing the neighbors. When a neighbor, struggling to protect his sheep from marauding coyotes, does what he feels he has to, he sets in motion a chain of events that will challenge Roberta's loyalties. Inspired by a true event in 1971 that led to the passage of the Endangered Species Act, this is a poetic evocation of Wyoming's high prairie country and of the bitter clash between the competing claims of the Old West and the New.