As Christmas approaches, Ella's pregnant, alone and scared. Tragedy strikes her life, tearing apart all that she knows and loves in Chicago. She travels to Texas to marry a man she has been corresponding with. As she prepares for her new life, the tragedy haunts her.... 

Widow Lucy, her young son, and unborn child are forced from their home due to unpaid debts. Needing a fresh start quickly, she begins corresponding with a doctor in Colorado. Jed is seeking someone to tend to his home and proposes to Lucy, excited to have an instant family. But as Lucy travels to Colorado, fear and doubt overtake her. While Jed seemed like a nice and kind man through his letters, she fears that he may not be that way in person.

Widow Emma accepts a Wyoming rancher's proposal to escape a precarious situation in Boston. While she must get away quickly, she hopes that she has made the right decision. But Wyoming will turn her life upside down, and her heart will never be the same. Widower rancher Ross still mourns for his late wife. When his children tell him all they want for Christmas is a mother, his heart breaks, for he knows he can never provide that. Ross does not believe he will ever be ready to marry again. As Christmas approaches, Ross' life is turned on end. 

As Christmas nears, Louisa travels to South Dakota to meet the man she will marry: widowed rancher Matthew. With no family of her own, she looks forward to becoming a wife and mother to Matthew's two young daughters. But Louisa's journey does not go as planned. While the girls are happy to see her and are happy their Christmas wish to have a mother comes true, Matthew doesn't want anything to do with her. Forced with facing lies and deceit, Louisa's happy Christmas suddenly turns dire.

As she travels to Arizona, Bella hopes for a better life. The rancher she is to marry needs someone to care for his three children. Bella knows this will only be a marriage of convenience and is grateful for a new start. Shane's ranch is what has kept him going since his wife passed four years ago. He tends to his children as best he can, vowing never to marry again. When Bella arrives, Shane's life unravels and is turned upside down. Not wanting her there, Shane plans to send her back home. But Bella has no home to go back to.

Sadie travels to Montana to meet the man she is to marry, wanting to escape a lonely and destitute life in New York. Mack assures Sadie he will provide a good life for her—a life that is all lies. Sadie is shocked to hear horrible news when she arrives in Montana, and her world comes crashing down. Rancher Brett has put down roots and hopes to find a wife that will give him heirs to his ranch. Love has no place in his heart; to Brett, marriage is only a business arrangement. A desperate Sadie seems the perfect choice for Brett, who harbors a secret he doesn't wish to share.

Hanna is jilted at the altar by a man she thought loved her. She leaves Philadelphia to escape the disgrace and humiliation that fill her soul. Ashamed and alone, she heads west to meet Frank, hiding a secret she plans not to reveal. Texas Ranger, Frank, longs to settle down but his job keeps him away from home. Although he yearns for a family, he wants someone to take care of his house. Hanna seems the perfect choice. He refuses to give his heart away and plans to keep his distance from his new wife.

Nora fears she will never have the family she longs for due to the scar she carries from a childhood accident. Known as the plain Kelly sister, she longs to run away to where no one knows her and have a fresh start. Utah rancher Clay needs someone to tend house and cook for him and the ranch hands. Love has no place in his life, and he proposes to a young woman he has been corresponding with, making it clear the marriage is in name only.

Clara is used to the stares and cruel remarks from those who pity her and don't believe she can be a hard worker. Believing she is a hindrance to her family, Clara heads west to meet the farmer who has proposed to her. But he's shocked to see her limp. As Clara fears he will send her back home, she begs the mercantile store owner, Jed, for a job, who turns her down upon noticing her limp.

Sally Johnson is sick of her life - sick of the upper class, sick of the social gatherings, sick of the dirty, bustling city, and truly sick of never feeling as though she is good enough. When the odious son of a failing steel baron announces they are engaged in order to marry into her rich family, Sally is truly fed up. Taking her life in her hands, she runs away and decides to become a mail-order bride.

When Margaret Jameston’s father passes away, her whole life changes. In one swift blow, she goes from the coddled, spoiled daughter of a doting father to a penniless pauper, entirely dependent on the charity of others. As she seeks to take control of her life again, employment proves impossible to find - and that’s what leads her to the matrimonial agency, and ultimately to Shadow Gulch, Idaho.

Adelle longs to escape a hard life in Philadelphia, dreaming of an easier life with a family of her own. Floyd seems like a kind-hearted man, and she eagerly accepts his proposal a few weeks before Christmas. But once she steps on the train to head west, Adelle's life begins to unravel, and she realizes too late that she has made a terrible mistake. With no money to return to Philadelphia, she's at the mercy of strangers in a new town; strangers who are only too willing to take advantage of her.

After losing her husband suddenly, pregnant Ava is struggling to survive in Boston. While she vows never to fall in love again, she knows a marriage of convenience is her only hope for a secure life for her and her unborn child. Rancher Ross is seeking a woman to help him on his ranch in Wyoming. Ava seems a perfect match for him. In his excitement to impress her, Ross embellishes a very important aspect of his life.

Abby is desperate to get away from her stepfather when she loses her mother, terrified of what he will do to her. A marriage of convenience to rancher Samuel in Oregon is her only way out of a dire situation. Samuel is raising his friends' daughters and needs a wife to help him care for them.

Cora's life shatters, and she desperately needs to get away from Chicago, where ridicule and shame follow her. When her sister encourages her to go west to Colorado and meet a man she had been corresponding with, Cora agrees. Widower Hugh awaits Amy's arrival, after proposing a marriage of convenience to her, as he knows his infant daughter needs a mother. But when Amy is nowhere to be seen, he is faced with a shocking revelation, and a switched bride.