After the loss of her father two years before, Hannah Moseby has endured resentment from her step-father in order to help her mother get through her new marriage. When her step-father tells her he’s arranged a marriage for her with a preacher going west, and she can either marry the preacher or she can find somewhere else to live, she agrees to meet the man. She’s not a natural fit as a preacher’s wife, and she’s not sure the Oregon Trail is something she can survive. Jedediah Scott is surprised when a stranger he meets at the general store in Independence offers him his daughter—more than offers, in fact. The man agrees to give Jed the amount of money it would cost to take her west, if he would consent to marry her. Jed agrees to meet the girl, because as a minister, he strongly believes in providence. Upon seeing Hannah, he feels drawn to her and wants her as his wife. God must surely have a hand in their meeting. Will the two of them be able to see past the circumstances in which their marriage began? Or will life on the Oregon Trail break the fragile connection Jed is sure could blossom into love?

When Mary Mitchell agrees to go on the Oregon Trail with her family, she certainly has ulterior motives. Believing that married women are no more than servants to men and children, she wants to get her own homestead, and Oregon is the place she can do just that. Her father discovers her plans, and he tells her she must marry one of the single men who are on the Trail with them, and she only has a week to decide who it will be. Bob Hastings is enamored of boyish Mary from the moment he meets her, and he continually asks her to dance with him when they have music nights on the trail. One night he even got up the courage to kiss her. He knows Mary’s predicament and offers himself as her husband, though he knows she doesn’t want a husband or children. Will the two of them be able to see past their differences and find happiness? Or will the hardships of the Trail be too much for them to withstand?

With only two young girls, Margaret Bolling, a widow, has been left with nothing. Desperate to survive, she takes her girls from their home in Kentucky to Independence, Missouri—the starting place of the two-thousand-mile trek to Oregon Territory. She only has herself to rely upon, and with her finances in dire straits, she sells baths and meals on the trail after driving her wagon all day. Everyone is so friendly—but one man always seems to be there when she needs help. After falling in love with Margaret the moment he saw her at the general store in Independence, Jamie Prewitt is determined to help her and the girls during the journey—but do it without her realizing it. He takes her meat he kills and sneaks some of his own food storage into hers while she sleeps. But after a month of watching her struggle on the trail, he asks her to marry him—only, their marriage will be platonic until she’s ready for a real one. Margaret likes Jamie, but is she betraying her beloved Tom by marrying him? And can she ever learn to rely on someone other than herself again?

Trudie Brown has a horrible secret, something that keeps her from being able to make friends along the Oregon Trail. When she starts cooking for a little girl and her widowed father, she has no intentions other than feeding them and helping them get to Oregon. The child, a gregarious social butterfly, believes right away her father should marry the woman cooking for them, but Trudie is certain it will never work, because she can tell no one about her past. Joseph Simmons has to do what he can to move on down the trail after losing his beloved wife. When his daughter, Emily, begs him night after night to marry Miss Brown, he decides to strike a deal with Miss Brown. He will marry her, but neither of them will need to reveal their past, and the marriage will be in name only. Emily will get a mother, and Joseph will have someone to cook his meals and do his laundry for the duration of his time on the trail, and longer if the arrangement works out well. It isn’t until they are married that Trudie realizes she’s attracted to Joseph. Will the two of them be able to get through their differences to be happily married? Or will they end up alone, even while they are together?