Everybody in McDade thought of Dellie O'Barr as "the good little sister." Dellie has always done what her father and brother wanted on the family farm; she even married the suitor her older sister stood up - an earnest man with a college education and a fine house in town. Dellie has always done the proper thing.

Always, that is, until now. Out of the blue, she finds herself falling for a stranger, a man stirring up the countryside with his fiery Populist speeches. Clearly, no good can come of it - he's an out-and-out rabble-rouser, a man set on disturbing the turn-of-the-century status quo on farms all over central Texas. And he's married.

And then, for the love of this man, Dellie O'Barr tosses aside her own status - a privileged life and perfect reputation - and opens herself to whispers of adultery and disloyalty. Not only that, she's suspected of burning down a local store hostile to her lover and his Populist followers. And when he flees town, she leaves her rich husband to chase after him.

As much about married love as forbidden love, The Passion of Dellie O'Barr is the story of a singular woman's life and of the lives of the two men she chooses as lovers. One, Andrew Ashland, is a dynamic political crusader. The other, Daniel O'Barr, is the man she leaves behind - the man who waits for her to come back home and stands by her when she returns to the scandalized town of McDade.