Caroline refuses to be distracted from her goal, even when she finds herself falling in love with the daring Dan Storm, former mountain man now guard at the Nauvoo Temple construction site.

Caroline rejects her feelings for Dan, even when an unexpected clash between Boggs and Storm results in Caroline and Dan becoming stranded on a deserted Mississippi River island. She refuses to be drawn into a romance that would interfere with her book project.

Blackmail from Boggs, a slave revolt in a Mexican gold mine, a vicious dog, a surprise Indian raid, and unexpected death, a midnight buffalo stampede, an unorthodox Mormon bishop, and an early winter storm on the continental divide bring this novel to an unexpected conclusion.