Living as a spinster and caring for her sister's illegitimate child, Julia Larson has never known passion. So she's surprised by the feelings that are stirred up when a secretive new ranchhand shows up to work on the Larson ranch. He's not a man she can trust, but as a violent fight for her land's water rights heats up, he may be the man she needs. Wolf McCloud charms the ladies, but never sticks around long. Having traced the mother who abandoned him to Northern California, he never expects to be drawn to Julia Larson as more than a means to an end.

After losing his wife in a vigilante attack, Jackson Wolfe ran from his grief and his guilt, leaving behind his baby daughter to be raised by strangers. Twelve years later, he knows it's time to quit running. He's learned everything there is to know about vengeance in his travels around the world, but now it's time to settle down and take up a new mantle: father to Dawn Twilight. He knows that if he finds her, he'll be the best father a little girl ever had. But when he arrives in Thief River to be the new sheriff and claim his daughter, her adoptive mother has other plans.

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.

1868. Elspeth Thompson is the middle daughter in a family with tightly held secrets. While she loves her family, she longs to break out from their overprotective hold, to find herself, to be noticed for who she is rather than as chaperone to her beautiful younger sister, Kirsty, or underling to her elder sister, Muireall. A chance meeting under scandalous circumstances offers her the opportunity to be seen for herself, but the repercussions could lead to the downfall of her family.

Missouri, February 1874: The last thing struggling homesteader Ginny needs is a scandal on her hands. But when a badly injured drifter arrives at Snow Farm in desperate need of medical attention, Ginny’s kind nature and good upbringing means she has no choice but to treat his wounds and care for him until he’s back on his feet, no matter the danger he might pose.