Jessamine Grant is strong-willed and independent. All her life, she’s worked hard to carve out her own path, even if it doesn’t always fit with society’s ideas of what women should be allowed to do.

While successfully running a boarding house in Cripple Creek, Colorado, makes Jessamine proud, she also can’t help but notice that her dear friends are finding love all around her, and she hasn’t found the same.

When she stumbles upon Duke Rollins’ encampment, she’s immediately intrigued by the handsome carpenter. 

Duke is also captivated by beautiful, stubborn Jessamine, but the dark shadows of his past threaten to keep them apart. And once he decides to face those shadows, the threat rapidly grows in size to become life-threatening.