In Texas in the 1930s, young schoolteacher Novalyne Price (Renée Zellweger) meets a handsome, eccentric, interesting young man named Robert E. Howard (Vincent D'Onofrio). He's a successful writer of the pulp stories of "Conan the Barbarian", and she's an aspiring one. A friendship develops into a sort of courtship. Based on a memoir by Novalyne Price.