Seamstress Cinnia York wants more than performing with a traveling vaudeville troupe—she wants to put down roots. The day after the troupe arrives in tiny Morgan’s Crossing, the manager takes all the money and leaves town. By opening a dressmaker shop, Cinnia hopes to make the home she’s always wanted, but Nola, the older sister who has made the decisions for the orphaned sisters, disagrees. Leather worker Nicolai Andrusha is living in hiding as Nic Andrews until the patent on his family’s tanning process is approved. Although he’s under a mandate to keep a low profile, he’s intrigued by the red-haired performer. Controversy arises when miners claim they paid the manager for private appointments with the female performers. Will Nicolai defy his family obligation to help the stranded beauty who has caught his eye?

Helping injured cowboy Torin Quaid drive mustangs north provides a way for vaudevillian Nola York to earn a train ticket east—and get one step closer to her goal of auditioning for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West stage production. The temporary marriage is solely for propriety’s sake. Until disaster strikes, and the two must rely on each other—emotionally and physically—to safely reach Torin’s ranch. Will a marriage of convenience turn into more on a trail drive through Montana Territory?

Injured ballerina Savina Lombard seeks refuge on her cousin’s ranch outside Morgan’s Crossing, Montana Territory until her foot heals. A dashing horse breeder/trainer arrives for his annual summer visit. Estefan del Vado comes from a family who raised championship trotters and his goal is to prove to his father the value of his cross-breeds. To accomplish that, he needs to win one of the season’s pacer harness races. On the Rolling M Ranch to train, he’s distracted by the delicate beauty who is determined that trick riding will be her new career. Using her dancing skills atop galloping horses is sure to win her a spot in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West exhibition. For a few glorious weeks, they share an enjoyment of the horses and getting acquainted. But when the time comes to pursue their separate goals, Savina and Estefan are split apart, geographically and emotionally. How will they discover a path they both can walk?

For almost a decade, Viktor Andrusha has fought to muscle his way from bare-knuckle street brawler to heavyweight boxing champion. A brutal battle two years earlier left him with impaired vision and his opponent dead. At the urging of his manager, Viktor is forced to settle for bouts in smaller venues farther west until he can land the opportunity for one last big match to restore honor to the family name. Thwarted in her desire to attend medical college, nurse Odette Hildebrand leaves her father’s clinic to help her relatives relocate to Montana Territory. While collecting medicinal herbs in the woods near Sweetwater Springs, she is drawn by the sound of sweet music and meets a shy man with a battered face. They make a pact: he’ll agree to receive her treatments while she studies the effects of different herbs, hoping to create a marketable remedy. Her skill heals his wounded exterior, but can she live with the fact he’ll receive more, or worse, injuries in the upcoming exhibition fight?

Vanora Deverell is tired of accompanying her father in his vagabond life as a farrier and wants a house to call her own. Even more, she’s tired of keeping him away from the faro tables. When a casino owner demands her hand in marriage to cancel her father’s outstanding debt, Vanora and her father go on the run. No matter what Vanora does, she’ll never do it as well as her late brother, even though she’s stepped in as her father’s apprentice. But she yearns to be recognized for the young woman she has become. Having to dress as a boy to enter shooting contest grates on her nerves, but her shooting skill is their best chance to get out of debt. Rancher Trent Melbyrne wants to step out from his father’s shadow and be recognized as a horse breeder in his own right. He’s in Bozeman buying a stud stallion when he enters a shooting contest and is chagrined when his accomplishments are bested by a boy…until he learns a secret about his opponent. At a second contest a few days later, he can’t believe the unfairness of the acclaim being heaped on the boy’s head. When he reveals the shooter’s secret, he sets off a string of events that lead to a showdown on his ranch in Morgan’s Crossing, Montana Territory. Can he atone for the danger he’s caused?

In 1887 Montana Territory, dime-novelist author, Thora Alviss, hounds an ex-US marshal, Harte Renwyck, for an interview, but he wants no more publicity about his past life. Thora doesn’t understand why so she sits opposite the Morgan mine to speak to him until she jeopardizes his job. After apologizing to Michael Morgan, Thora switches to exploring the physical environment for locations for her stories and ends up being cornered by a bull on the Rolling M Ranch. Thora’s thirst for a good story is stronger than her ability to get herself out of danger and Harte comes to the rescue time and again. Will she give up and return east, or will she learn the survival skills she’s been writing about? Ex-US marshal, Harte Renwyck, is seeking a new job but a pesky dime-novelist author, Thora Alviss, wants to interview him about his past profession. He wants no more publicity or acclaim and has to act tough to get her to leave the site of his mine guard job. On an afternoon ride, he has to rescue her from being bull bait in a nearby ranch’s pasture. The next rescue occurs during a thwarted gold train robbery. While Harte can’t deny a growing respect for her efforts, he’s been wronged by the press in the past and fights to keep his distance. Can he look past his prior grudge and see the adventurous woman close at hand?