Twenty-year-old Sarah Jones has no idea that the night of June 30, 1978, will be the beginning of the worst years of her life. A single mother living with her parents outside of Denver, Colorado, Sarah is a shy girl with few friends and even less self-confidence. She works two jobs to provide her daughter, Tina, with life's necessities. That night in the Riverview Bar, she meets a man who will change her life. In the beginning, Sarah is enamored with William "Bill" Taylor's easy-going personality. She falls in love and believes she has finally met "Mr. Right." There is nothing that Sarah won't do for him.

And in spite of the street life that Bill leads, she thinks being a good woman will win his love. But before long she discovers that she harbors the wrong perception of love. Soon, Sarah is caught in a destructive cycle of mental and physical abuse while trying to protect Tina and her new daughter, Alisha. First, Sarah struggled for love, and now she is struggling for her life.