The Kansas prairie in 1878 is the setting for this mystery about a girl who gets a new stepmother—a woman who may not be what she appears

Ida Kate Deming lives on the Kansas prairie with her father. Once a lonely outpost, Hays City is now a bustling town where the twelve-year-old impatiently awaits the arrival of papa’s mail-order bride. Ida Kate lost her beloved mother when she was ten. Now someone new will share their lives, along with the seemingly endless chores. And the best part is, Ida Kate will have a new mother and a new little brother, as well. But when Caroline Fairchild steps off the train, she doesn’t look at all the way she described herself in her letters. Instead of being tall and thin, she’s short. And her hair is the wrong color. And she definitely isn’t allergic to cats.

As Ida Kate races to uncover the truth before her father marries Caroline, a blizzard endangers her new family, and Ida Kate has to figure out where her true loyalties lie.