A dream sometimes comes at great cost.

Betrothed in a sensible match, even if the man isn't the love she's always imagined, Sarah McNeal relies on the advice her late grandmother gave as well as her own common sense. Dreams of a mysterious European count who rides in and sweeps her off her feet arethe stuff of girlhood. And she's a woman now. But when her fiance's older brother, Jeremiah, returns to Boulder Creek, he unknowingly awakens that discarded dream.

Nine years ago, Jeremiah West lost his wife and newborn son in an epidemic, and he's been wandering ever since. A survivor of the Spanish-American War, he finally returns to Boulder Creek to settle on the farm he inherited from his father, an inheritance his younger brother still begrudges.

When a blizzard threatens Sarah's life-and her reputation-Jeremiah is there to rescue her. But the pain of his past remains a stumbling block. Then fate brings Jeremiah and Sarah to a crossroads, and love demands a decision that will change the course of their lives.