After Cordelia Channing endures the lethal winter alone in the Rocky Mountains, she is discovered by Thomas Nash, a solitary mountain man who wants only to hunt and be left alone to grieve the woman he could not save. Delia aches to go east, but over the days and miles, she finds her battered spirit yearning for this self-reliant trapper, who stirs her longing and wakes her heart.

When his perfect older brother passes, black sheep Nate Justice is willing to honor his dying request and enter a marriage of convenience with his brother's bride. But when he meets her, all notions of a marriage in name-only burn away in the heat of desire. Trouble is, he knows his faults and that he'll always be second to his respectable, older brother in her eyes. Clara Justice has a secret: She’s not the pillar of morality that Nate believes. She’s made mistakes and paid the price, but she isn't willing to ease her conscience at the risk of her daughter's future.

Raised in the hills of Tennessee, Emma Simms dreams of the day she’ll escape her life of poverty to start over in the excitement of Knoxville. But when her mother dies and she’s left with no one but her stepfather, Luke Simms, her dream abruptly becomes a nightmare. Luke plans to send Emma to Knoxville all right - straight to a notorious brothel. River Joe, the mysterious Cherokee-raised frontiersman, knew from the first time he set eyes on the beautiful Emma that he had to have her as his own.

When Luke McCutcheon finds Faith Brown about to give birth in her rickety wagon, his first instincts are to ride for help. Instead, he stays and delivers a beautiful baby girl. Unable to leave the pretty young widow and her little son and newborn unprotected in the Montana wilderness, he brings them along on his family's cattle drive, to the absolute delight of the other friendly cowboys.

Matt Shannon lost his fiancé to a tragic accident. He does not want anything more to do with love and marriage. But he is now guardian to four-year-old Lindy. Desperate for a woman to mother the little girl, he arranges for a mail-order bride. The agreement is for convenience only, but Gwen’s kindness and good nature threaten his barred heart.