One is the man she missed. The other is the man she married. Lumberman's daughter, Colette Palmer has understood the industry since her youth—and she's always loved timber cruiser Manason Kade—even though he only remembers her as a child. Leaving Michigan to settle with her family in the Wisconsin wilderness, and separated from him by miles and years, compassion compels her to marry another. Manason longs to plant roots of his own in Wisconsin Territory. But when he stakes his claim and challenges the illegal log harvesting of a rival company, Colette's husband swears to ruin him. Then one day Manason and Colette meet again. Now, an empire in pine hangs in the balance, and she will have to choose between her first love and her commitment to a difficult marriage.

Spurned twice since the death of her first betrothed in a logging accident, Lainey Kade has become the object of talk."That Lainey, she's a shrew all right. Not ever going to marry, likely," the gossips say. Fleeing heartache and flaunting convention, Lainey seeks solace instead in seeking adventure and breaking the rules. Embarking on a journey where she hopes to put the past behind, Lainey crosses paths with brothers Zane and Kelly Beaumont and pretends to be a married woman. But they find her out, and she soon forges an adventurous companionship with these men whose nightmares since the Civil War have never let them return home. Following the lead of the next thrill, the ties of their friendship tighten, and Lainey denies love's rekindled spark. However, as fires rage across the Wisconsin wilderness, the brothers’ attraction may tear them each apart, and Lainey may be consumed by the fury burning inside her.

Despite the panic of 1893, logging reaches its golden era in the growing state of Wisconsin, and twins Jesilyn and Corianne Beaumont enjoy a comfortable life with family in the bursting Great Lake city of Superior. But when jealousy incites Jesi to seduce Cori's fiancé, a flight and fall from grace lands her in a boomtown brothel, where a fresh start is denied her. Camp preacher Paul Winter longs to offer hope in the logging and mining towns of northern Wisconsin, but not in the way he expects when he meets a redhead he calls Pie Girl. He's never had to battle his own longings quite this way before. Meanwhile, stung by Jesilyn's betrayal, Corianne's bitterness might separate her from a second chance at happiness and peace. Only by Grace can both women begin new lives, and budding love can bloom in places neither of them expect.