Colorado, summer of 1880. Aurora McMullen, an orphan, has been left without family by her rich aunt's death. When the government seizes the small fortune given to her in the will, she takes a chance on her future and responds to a mail-order bride ad. Accustomed to a comfortable life in the city, she sets out to marry a man who defies her expectations and shows her the greatest riches come from the heart.
Elbridge Claywood, the doctor of Coal Valley, has been wanting to find a proper wife to share his home. A letter from his friend in Nashville helps him choose a volunteer nurse desperate to leave a bad situation. Always a gentleman, he marries this beautiful woman who brings warmth and hope into his lonely existence.
Together, they will discover they are destined for one another despite a good dose of homesickness and the rugged conditions of life in the west.