Beyond the majestic Rockies lay the promise of land, the promise of love.
Beautiful Emmalee Alder was escaping a Cincinnati orphanage when a black-eyed rogue spirited her aboard a Missouri-bound riverboat. Blind to Garn Lander's true passion, she does what she must to escape his bold advances; she sells herself into servitude to a wagon train heading West.
Obsessed by a proud dream of independence, swept-up in the fever of land rush, she has yet to learn that claiming land was only half the battle. There is farming, ranching, and bone-deep toil. And there is Garn, the man who may just help her grasp her golden future.