Carla has known nothing but the orphanage for all her life. Derided because of the birthmark that covers half of her face, her only friend is Sally. When Sally dies in childbirth, she begs Carla to save her baby’s life. With Baby Marsha wrapped in her arms, Carla runs for their lives, making the long walk to the next town, Carrick Plains. There she finds comfort and help in a way she never expected. Soon she begins to relax, but Sheriff Bud Jeffries is curious about this newcomer.  

With both parents working all hours and four younger brothers at home, the care and keeping of the household is squarely on her shoulders. When her father forces her to find a job in addition to everything else, it proves to be too much. Desperate for a way out, Mandy agrees to become a mail-order bride and marry a man she’s never met—a ranch hand named Matthew Bostwick, in Mine’s Place, Colorado. But traveling from Boston to Colorado is just the beginning of Mandy’s journey. 

Edward Ahlborn is a prodigal son. After almost a decade away from home, he returns to the family ranch in Culver’s Creek, Montana to visit his parents, sisters, and his twin brother Will. Ten years will change any man, and he wonders what his family will think of him, now that he’s been away.

Sarah Jennings hasn’t had an easy life. Raised in an orphanage, she’s desperate to get away. Answering an advert for a mail-order bride seems to be her only choice. Jack Thompson is well-known as a catch in Mossy Meadow, Nebraska. But he’s a widower, with a little girl and a mother to care for. More than that, he never recovered from the death of his first wife. The last thing he wants is to marry again. But his mother takes the choice out of his hands and writes an advert for a mail-order bride.

After her father passes away, Jodie Wines is lonely and overworked. Her stepmother, a vain and lazy woman, leaves Jodie to do everything. Jodie’s one consolation is that she still lives in her father’s house, her childhood home in Boston, in the town she loves. But when she discovers her stepmother’s plot to marry her off to an odious merchant, Jodie flees west to become a mail order bride.