A mountain snowstorm forces a train heading west into Idaho to halt overnight on a side-track; two passengers with starkly different pasts are drawn into conversation, become fascinated with each other, and wonder if there is any chance of a friendship becoming something more. In the searing heat of a California summer, a mother agonizes over her son's relationship with a woman with an uncertain past, and then despairs over having gone too far in telling him the truth. In "On a Side-Track" and "A Touch of Sun," Mary Hallock Foote reveals the struggles, hopes, and serendipities of life and love in the American West.