Life isn't easy for a young woman alone in 19th Century Colorado, but when Emer Matthews needs to escape an untenable situation, she only has herself to depend on. She has no time for men having seen firsthand the high price women pay for love, so she seeks solace with the sister she's never met, Sorcha. But when Emer gets to Boston, she discovers her sister has moved to Clover Springs and she's left alone with no money and no means to go back to Colorado.



Lawrence Shipley is bored. He's fed up of his match making domineering mother. He wants to gain independence by heading up the Shipley Banking Dynasty in Denver. But his mother has other ideas. She decides to go to Denver too, reluctantly agreeing to take Father Molloy's latest protégée, Emer.



Emer is nothing like any woman Lawrence has met. She intrigues him and excites him, but it seems she won't have anything to do with him. Can he destroy the wall she's built around her heart? Or will her past catch up with her and destroy them both?