No bachelor could be prepared for what happens to the Givens brothers one stormy night in 1876. Finding a pregnant woman on their road, they take her in. Before they can learn anything about her, she gives birth to triplets and disappears. Luckily, the doctor supplies a much-needed wet-nurse—Cynara, a recent widow who lost her baby. Her sad eyes and gentle acceptance awaken something in Barclay's staid soul. But she's not ready for a new man in her life. She'll stay at the ranch and tend the babies, but that's all. Meanwhile, where is the babies' real mother? Who and where is the father? And what will become of these helpless infants?

Jared Givens went to town to invite his best gal on a picnic. Instead, he's summoned to the hotel where a young lady he'd never seen before awaits him. A young woman going by the name Mrs. Jared Givens. Ruth Healy Kimbrough is on the run from a man who wants her silenced forever. She chose the Givens ranch as her refuge because her sister is married to Jared's brother, Barclay. Will the Givens family help Healy? Can they hide her from Skelly Bernard and keep her alive? Will Jared get past having to pretend he's married to a stranger? Or will his marriage turn into a true, loving union?

Chase Givens never again expected to see the ragged girl, Minnie, again, after she gave birth to triplets at High Mountain Ranch and promptly disappeared three years ago. Now, single and lonely, he sows his wild oats by holding a horse race through the center of town. Nothing new, but this time, Chase nearly runs down a young woman. Horrified, he runs to help her, intrigued and curious about this vaguely familiar stranger. After abandoning her triplets, Jessamine (Minnie) Styles spent three years at a French finishing school, growing up and learning to deal with her past. At eighteen, she's a stronger, well educated young woman planning to open a school of her own not far from High Mountain ranch. The bitter, defiant child is gone. Everything has changed, including her feelings toward her children. When she goes to High Mountain, asking to see them, old emotions re-emerge between her and Chase. Neither knows their lives are about to change forever.