Twelve-year-old Andrea "Andi" Carter attracts trouble the way her palomino horse, Taffy, draws flies on a hot summer day. Andi's entire family and the ranch hands at the Circle C treat her like a pesky kid, and Andi sometimes wonders if her family would be better off without her. So after one really frightening event where she gets into major trouble, she saddles up Taffy and runs way from home. But her escape doesn't earn her the freedom she expected. In fact, encounters with a horse thief and a vicious girl convince Andi that life on her own can be down right terrifying.