Karissa is the school teacher in the town of Black Jack in 1865. Brought up on her strict father's farm, her only real pleasure in life is her work - and her magical dreams, which always feature a tall dark and handsome stranger who spanks her bottom! One morning she awakens from a dream in which, dressed in an elaborate red gown, she leaves a grand house and ventures out into the garden, where He is waiting to kiss her and chastise her. So imagine her surprise when the very next day she meets a stranger in town - the Pinkerton detective who has tracked down and killed the bandits wanted for robbing the stage coach. She experiences a sense of déjà vu - there is something about the stranger that is familiar to her and she is puzzled as he seems to know quite a lot about her - not just her history but her thoughts and feelings too.

Introducing himself as Marco De Santis, he persuades her to go to the diner with him, which marks the beginnings of a tempestuous relationship, a relationship which often results in Karissa being upended over Marco's knee.

Marco becomes the town hero and is offered a job as the town sheriff, but attitudes change once Marco's true identity is inadvertently revealed - for he is a vampire. Hostilities escalate as events unravel, yet Karissa is hopelessly in love with Marco and learns they have been together in her past lives. He is her one true love, but what kind of a future can they possibly have, given her own mortality...?