As Christmas nears, Louisa travels to South Dakota to meet the man she will marry: widowed rancher Matthew. With no family of her own, she looks forward to becoming a wife and mother to Matthew's two young daughters. But Louisa's journey does not go as planned. While the girls are happy to see her and are happy their Christmas wish to have a mother comes true, Matthew doesn't want anything to do with her. Forced with facing lies and deceit, Louisa's happy Christmas suddenly turns dire.

Jericho Coulter, the eldest of six fiercely devoted brothers, is entrusted with safeguarding his family and the secret that binds them together: the Sapphire mine. To keep tragedy from striking again, he allows no outsiders on their land. When two women stumble upon their ranch, claiming Jericho himself sent for one of them as a mail-order bride, he aims to send them straight back where they came from.

As she travels to Arizona, Bella hopes for a better life. The rancher she is to marry needs someone to care for his three children. Bella knows this will only be a marriage of convenience and is grateful for a new start. Shane's ranch is what has kept him going since his wife passed four years ago. He tends to his children as best he can, vowing never to marry again. When Bella arrives, Shane's life unravels and is turned upside down. Not wanting her there, Shane plans to send her back home. But Bella has no home to go back to.

Cynthia Kent is a burden. She's tried to help her sister and brother-in-law, but most of her efforts have ended up in disasters of varying degrees. She's depended on their charity for too long and it was high time she started taking care of herself. But how? Tyler Shelton is a widower with two young children. As the sheriff, raising two children alone while handling his important job has pushed him to the breaking point. He's taken everything one day at a time, but his family is suffering and they need help. Tyler is used to giving help to others, but not asking for it.

Virginia has endured much heartache in her life. Orphaned at 16 and widowed at 23, she longs to escape poverty, start a new life, and find true love. When she corresponds with mercantile owner Jake, she feels drawn to him. But Jake only wants a marriage of convenience and a helper in his store.