Ford Bellamy never planned to leave his wife, never expected she'd leave him. But death is merciless and it's time to make a new life for himself and his little girl. New Mexico, where his sister and her husband have made their home, calls to him.

After five years in Boston, Maria Cordova travels home, excited to return to the beauty of New Mexico but less so to an arranged marriage. The handsome cowboy with a baby in his arms catches her interest and tugs at her heart but he's surely married, and she's betrothed to a man she's never met. Fate has ideas of its own as the stagecoach journey north proves more perilous with each passing mile. Ford turns to Maria to keep his daughter safe while he adds his skill and his gun to the protection of the coach and passengers.

Meanwhile, Katherine watches the New Mexico horizon for her brother and worries over the danger that threatens the ranch she and Slade have built together with Jeb and Hannah. They don't believe that the band of Indians who coexist peacefully at their boundary are behind the murder of their vaquero or the slaughter of their cattle. The stagecoach trip is coming to an end, but Ford hasn't found love only to lose it again and Maria is a woman worth fighting for.