Katherine Peterson hasn’t seen her mother or sister for almost ten years. So when she learns that her mother is ill, she sees this as an opportunity to return to Kerryville, Ga., reconcile with her mother and settle past issues with her sister, Julie. With Katherine is Allison, an adorable tom-boy with skinned knees, freckles, and strawberry blond braids underneath a baseball cap.

Unfortunately, the first person Katherine meets when she arrives in her hometown is Alan Connor, the first and only man she ever loved. Unfortunately, Alan’s smoldering good looks can still take her breath away, and it doesn’t help that his crystal blue eyes are the exact color as Allison’s. Katherine’s thrown further off balance when she finds her mother on the brink of death, Julie is missing, and her childhood best friend is cold and unwelcoming.

Her mother’s death the day after Katherine returns and the unexpected appearance of Julie sets off an eruption that puts Katherine in the path of danger, but worse, could separate her from her beloved child.

A gifted surgeon, Galen Hall, walked away from the world and the horrors of the Civil War when an orphanage was shelled three days after Lee surrendered to Grant. He has tried to forget that tragic day for the past ten years. Galen’s commanding officer during the war, Wade Phelps, now works for the Pinkerton Agency and has kept track of Galen as his act of atonement since he feels responsible for the deaths of the children in the orphanage. So when a young boy is kidnapped from St. Louis, Phelps seeks out Galen to ask for his help finding the child.

Dutiful daughter Eleanor Trent lives in St. Louis. When her father arranges a marriage for Nora to a man she barely knows, she feels she has no choice but to do as her father wishes, even though her intended bridegroom slightly repulses her. However, after being abandoned by her husband the day after the marriage, Nora discovers that her new husband and her father have used her for reasons that are a complete mystery.

Rebelling against her father’s orders, Nora travels to Texas to find her missing husband. She meets Galen Hall when she’s kidnapped from her stagecoach, and he rescues her. Nora and Galen form an uneasy alliance, suspecting that the child’s kidnapping is somehow related to her hasty marriage. They set out to find and save the missing boy before being sold to the dreaded Comancheros and disappearing forever.