Tyne Ciders is a widowed, single mother. At least that's her story when she arrives in town as a mail-order bride. But when she learns the arrangement was only a part of a newspaper scam, Tyne is stuck once again without a cover for her sordid past. With no marriage in her future, no job, and no money, she and her small daughter are forced to hole up in a nearby barn-the very barn of the man who'd witnessed her appalling encounter with the frightening old coot she'd thought to marry.
Agony is Zephaniah Rowley closest friend. He's lost everything that mattered to him. His wife, his children. Now, living as a hermit, every day is a horrible cesspool of penance for his own selfishness and guilt. So when he encounters a needy woman and her charming child on the dusty road, he makes a quick bee-line to drop them off at the nearest boarding house. He can't afford to let his heart get involved. Or what's left of it. Yet, he finds them living penniless in his barn, and he rashly offers a permanent solution. One that will change everything. For better or...for worse...