As a young wife, Tess follows her cavalryman husband, Tom Armstrong, to the wilds of the late nineteenth-century Dakota Territory. The vastness and beauty of the northern plains engage their souls, inspiring them to acquire land and build a farm where they live and raise their young family in anticipation of Tom's discharge from service. When Tom is abruptly killed in the Indian Wars, Tess is left alone to raise her two children while she struggles to maintain her farm on the isolated plains. Cleveland Devereaux has wandered across half of the country to escape heartbreak and disappointment, successfully employing his luck and skill as a gambler until he is shot and left for dead on the Dakota plains. When he wakes up to find himself cared for by a beautiful widow, he is both hesitant to become involved in her life and irrefutably drawn to her. Tess and Cleve wrestle with their mutual attraction while balancing Tess's concern for the stability of her farm and family and Cleve's relentless and dangerous pursuit to unravel the mystery of who filled him full of lead and left him to die in the wilderness. Their struggles are further complicated when an aggressive Bonanza farmer with an eye for comely women and rich farmland sweeps in to place his bid on Tess's future. Can Tess and Cleve survive the obstacles imposed by themselves and the roughshod pioneer world around them? Will they surrender to the blossoming respect, attraction, and passion that draws them together and portends a future of fulfilling companionship? To discover the answer, they must wager their hearts and lives to win .