Nellie Sanders persuades her uncle, a renowned botanist, to allow her to join an expedition to the Sawtooth Valley in Idaho Territory in 1872. Using an assumed name, infamous shootist Malachi Breedlove contracts to lead the botanical expedition into the wilderness.A crazy old woman steals Nellie, believing her a dead daughter returned to life. As leader of the expedition, Malachi is forced to send others to seek the woman he now realizes he loves. Nellie finally convinces the old woman to take her back, claiming she will die without Malachi.No sooner are Nellie and Malachi reunited than disaster strikes the expedition. Now the lovers must face the dangers of the wilderness must, conquer old weaknesses and discover new strengths. As the summer ends, Nellie faces a choice between academic acclaim and love, while Malachi wonders whether he can hang up his guns and survive. Can they find a compromise that lets them both realize their dreams?

Tony Dewitt, his reputation in tatters, is hired to install a newfangled telephone system in Hailey, Idaho. Racial prejudice is rampant, so Tony, who is Chinese, passing as white, conceals his ancestry. Lulu King is of mixed race and proud of it. Having seen firsthand what misery bigotry can cause, she has devoted her life to the campaigns for women's suffrage and equal rights for all. They were childhood friends, but conflicting goals drove them apart. Now fate has brought them to the same small town and the old attraction is difficult to deny. Sabotage to the telephone system and a boycott by the Anti-Chinese League threaten Tony's career and Lulu's convictions. Soon their very lives are endangered.

Welcome to Whiterock, Oregon, where Sally Carruthers nurses her dying father, and dreams of the day she can go back to her real life. Where Gus Loring seeks forgetfulness, but to find it, he'd have to do the impossible and forgive himself. Whiterock is a town where people are from, because there's nothing to hold them there. Every year more of the stores on Main Street close, and every year more of its young people leave to find their fortunes somewhere else. Where what you see today may be different tomorrow.Maybe that's why the town persists. Because there is more to Whiterock than its 639 residents, the elk statue by the park, and the Bite-A-Wee Café. More to it than a place where Gus and Sally find temporary passion together. Whiterock is more than just a town. A lot more...

Orphaned in Florence, Lucy Raymond takes the only employment she can find, that of a castrato assistant to an art and antiquities dealer. But as she grows into womanhood, her masquerade chafes, for it allows none of the romance she craves. In her loneliness she often visits the Piazza della Signoria, where she gazes at the magnificent sculptures and dreams impossible dreams. Until one day, when she is overcome by loneliness and the oppressive heat, she faints at the feet of an enormous sculpture, only to wake in the arms of its living embodiment. Allowing herself to be seduced is the last thing Lucy should do. But Vido is warm and vital and the living image of David, so how can she resist?

When Eve Dixon decides to make her own way in a man's world, she doesn't count on having to do it disguised as a young man. When James Quinton, misogynistic entrepreneur, hires a secretary, he doesn't expect to be attracted to hi... her. Once employed, Eve finds herself discovering that her taciturn, solemn employer is a charming, likable fellow, one she could easily fall in love with—if she were a woman. To further complicate her life, Quinton's younger sister develops a tendre for her brother's handsome secretary. Now, Eve is caught in a tangle of her own devising. When her deception is revealed, Quinton is outraged—and intrigued. The outrage wins, and Eve's future extends barren before her, with only memories of love in her heart. Will Quinton, who sees her as one more treacherous woman in his life, find forgiveness possible?