Summary

In the summer of 1890, U.S Marshal Hodge Egan is forced to leave the comfort of Chicago to trail a killer into the Wisconsin wilderness. He vows that when he brings this man to justice, he will resign from the law and enjoy the good life in the gentlemen's clubs of San Francisco, a dream he has nurtured for many years.

Molly O'Brien runs a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. To the citizens of Delight, Wisconsin, she is disdained for avoiding marriage while raising four little girls, two of whom aren't even kin. On top of that, she offers shelter to a reclusive former slave who lives in the nearby forest. Though she is admired for her strength and courage, her unconventional lifestyle makes her an odd little misfit.

When Molly discovers two men lying in her field, near death, she takes them home, only to learn from their belongings strewn about the field that one of them is a dangerous outlaw, and one a man of the law. But which is which? Both claim to be the marshal, while neither will admit to being the outlaw. Until she can get them healthy enough to return them to town and hand them over to the law, she must protect herself and her daughters while tending both men and her farm.

Throw into this dangerous mix a sly, vicious killer, a woman with a tender heart, a girl on the threshold of becoming a woman, a child afraid of her own shadow, and one who has the gift of vision, and you have a wild and wonderful adventure, as well as a surprising love story.