As she drives through a thunderstorm, she sees a figure in the middle of the road. She slams on the brakes, but knows it's too late and fears he's injured, or worse. With the help of a passing motorist, she searches for the man, but finds no one. The elderly man assisting her points out the lack of damage to her car, and convinces her it was a trick of the eye.

Raine shrugs it off as reading too many Highland legends, until she sees him again. This time it's underneath her hotel window. She reaches the spot she last saw him, but finds it vacant. Again, he's disappeared into thin air; vanished like a ghost. This thought unnerves her, but she shakes it off as exhaustion and tries to rest, but once again, her mysterious Highlander with haunting blue eyes, visits her dreams.

Strange things continue to happen. An illustration of an 18^th Century Highlander mesmerizes her in the library. While holding a dirk reputed to be the one "Black" Alec Macleod used to kill his second wife, Raine pricks her finger and hears a man's voice whisper into her ear. But only the elderly saleswoman is around. Later, she stops in the park and hears someone call her name. Thinking she sees whom it might be, she takes off after him, but finds a bouquet of heather at her feet. Attached to the bouquet is a card, which contains a verse. Its first line is the same words she heard whispered in the antique store. She looks closer and notices capitalized letters within the five lines. When she realizes those letters spell her name, she faints.

Upon waking, she finds her head in the lap of an attractive male with sky-blue eyes. He explains the verse she found is a Macleod wedding vow. She looks again at the card, only there's no capital letters spelling her name, and she starts to question her sanity.

At the museum, Raine finds a life-sized painting of "Black" Alec Macleod, and it's the same as the illustration in the library reference book. It is also the same man with the deep blue eyes, who has haunted her dreams since she arrived in Scotland. At the foot of the painting is a brooch said to have belonged to Alec's second wife. Two hearts intertwine within a circle, and springing from the middle of the two hearts are periwinkles, forget-me-nots and snowdrops. When a Macleod speaks the engraved words, "Rain has tamed my heart and soothed my soul", he will once again be reunited with his lost love.

Could this by why he haunted her? To reunite him with his lost love? But she was a Mackenzie, not a Macleod.

Raine purchases an antique desk for her apartment, and as she's inspecting it closer, notices that the same three flowers of the brooch are engraved in one of the knobs. After finally opening the drawer, Raine finds a false bottom and a sealed letter hidden within its confines.

After leaving the hotel, she remembers her purse with the letter and maps, forgotten on the desk. Finding the ruins of the Macleod castle, she at once feels at peace. Something pulls her into the forests and the grave of Alec Macleod. Raine finds the marker and reaches out to touch it. Lightening strikes and everything goes black.

She wakes up and sees a rag tag bunch of savage looking men, who seem to think she's a boy. Then she looks up and finds herself staring at who she believes is a descendant of Alec Macleod. Only it's not a descendant, but the man himself. Somehow, she finds herself in 1740 Scotland.

Raine convinces everyone she is from the American Colonies and the niece to Hamish Mackenzie. The attraction between Raine and Alec is almost palatable to everyone within the castle, particularly Alec's aunt who wants her own daughter to marry Alec and be the lady of the keep. She connives to keep Raine and Alec apart, and once again, things start to happen to Raine. A cat she adopts is killed; her saddle straps are cut; her drink is poisoned; and a rumor floats around that she's a witch.

Fearing for her safety, Alec says he will marry Raine, though he wishes all Mackenzies six feet under. Raine remembers that he is accused of killing his second wife--her-- and flees the Macleod keep, going to Hamish for protection. But he has his own plans for Raine. He wants her to marry Alec and lead him into a trap, so Hamish can kill him and take control of the Macleod lands. When she refuses, he tells her she can marry his son, a slimy weasel of a man who has strange tastes in the bedroom.

Either way, Raine knows she's doomed. Word gets to Alec about Hamish's plans, and he rushes to save Raine. As they're, she curses Hamish with the date of his death.

Alec professes his love to Raine, and she to him. She then confides to Alec the truth of where she's from, and tells him of the turmoil ahead for the Highlanders and their way of life. He is reluctant to believe her, but when she sees his new desk, she knows how to convince him, for it is the same desk she bought before she came to his time.

She agrees to marry Alec, not sure what the future holds for her, and the myth around the fate of Alec's second wife. On their wedding day, he gives her a brooch; the Faery's Brooch she saw at the museum, only a bit different. The two hearts detach from the circle; the hearts for her to wear, the circle for Alec. They live in relative peace, and Raine helps him prepare for the turmoil that lies ahead. The one thing she has kept secret form Alec, is the date of his death.

Their peace is shattered by Alec's aunt, who has the village inhabitants convinced that Raine is witch. She lures Raine out to the glen where Alec first saw her. The demented old woman has Alec's dirk, and plans on killing Raine and blaming Alec. Unable to find Raine, Alec becomes worried, and learns that she rode off with his aunt. He knows this spells nothing but trouble, since he uncovered his aunt's secret--she is the witch, not Raine.

He hurries to the glen and finds his aunt raving at Raine about how she should have been lady of the keep years ago, but Alec's father married another. Then Raine ruined her daughter's chance by marrying Alec, but soon she would take care of her like she did his first wife.

Anger blinds Alec, at what she's done and is about to do. He struggles with his aunt, and she shoots at him, only Raine intercepts the bullet. Alec holds Raine and tells her his love for her will never die; that they will one day be together again. The last thing Raine remembers is watching the old woman fall to the ground, muttering strange words.

She wakes up in a modern hospital, with IVs in her arm and a bandage around her side. At first, she believes it all to be a dream, but when the nurse asks what she's been holding onto so tightly, Raine knows it wasn't a dream after all. Grasped tightly in her hand are the intertwined hearts of the Faery's Brooch. All her personal belongings from the hotel are with her, and she finds the letter from the desk when searching through her purse. Gently she opens it, and cries as her heart shatters into a million pieces. It is a letter to her from Alec, proclaiming his love and vowing to be together once again.

After she recovers, she returns to South Carolina, heartbroken. Until one day, she hears a deep male voice coming from the front of her store. She walks to the sales area, her heart pounding as she recognizes Alec's voice. Calling his name, she runs toward him, then stops dead in her tracks and faints.

She opens her eyes, her head in a man's lap. A very familiar man, though not the one she wished it to be, but with the same sky blue eyes of a Macleod. He was the man who helped her once before in Scotland, the man who told her of the Macleod wedding vow.

He introduces himself as Alexander Macleod, and tells her he has been tracing the whereabouts of the Faery's Brooch. She introduces herself, and as she starts to ask him questions about the brooch, he repeats her name and the words engraved upon the brooch. He holds out the circle that should surround the hearts and Raine places the hearts within the circle.

Within the depths of his eyes, to the window of his very soul, Raine glimpses the Alec she knew and loved, reincarnated in his descendant. He had kept his promise and they were together once again, their love boundless in the whispers through time.