Registered nurse, Alaina Lowell, has seen enough troubled marriages to sully her view of wedded bliss, so she has no plans to marry—or let a man have any over control her life—ever. On the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Flagstaff, Arizona, one weekend, she pulls off the freeway and stops for a short break at the Petrified Forest National Monument. Leaving her car in the parking lot, she hikes a short ways on the paved trail before venturing off the path to check out an interesting tree. As she turns to head back, she trips over a rock, hits her head, and blacks out.
When Alaina comes to, the paved trail, the parking lot, and her car are gone, and nothing looks the same. Thinking she had merely wandered farther off the path than she realized, she heads in the general direction she believes the parking lot and the freeway to be. But instead of Interstate 40, she finds a rough road that's hardly more than a trail, and a stagecoach, drawn by six horses, is rushing headlong, right at her. She soon discovers that she has somehow been transported one hundred years back in time to 1888. Dressed in tight-fitting jeans, a blouse, and sneakers, Alaina knows she doesn't fit in. She needs to adapt, and fast. But without a penny to her name and not a soul she can turn to—as no one she knows has even been born yet—Alaina fears she may have to do the one thing she always swore she would never do: get married and let a man support her.
Federal Deputy John Claymore, a passenger on the stagecoach, falls hard for Alaina and asks for her hand in marriage, promising to always take care of her. But can she trust him, or any man, not to become a monster once they marry? Even if she can, what happens when she makes it back to her own time in 1988? Or worse, what happens if she doesn't? How can she possibly survive in this harsh and unforgiving world? Especially when the man who loves her is heading off to war...
