An ambitious West Texas schoolmarm (Renee Zellweger) with literary inclinations is drawn romantically to an idiosyncratic writer (Vincent D`Onofrio) of pulp horror tales, despite his virtually Oedipal attachment to his convalescent mother and his other emotional troubles. A tender, offbeat romantic story based on the memoir One Who Walked Alone, written by Novalyne Price of her brief affair with Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard.