Patience Callahan is twenty-five and fast becoming an old maid. But she's spent most of her life dreaming over romantic European literature and wants a dashing d'Artagnan, not a bookish Bob Cratchit. Alas, the Colorado town of Gilman is chock-full of Cratchit's without a d'Artagnan in sight. Peter Foote, the general store owner, has been in love with Patience for seven years. But every time he's on the verge of proposing, she cuts him off; he can only imagine on purpose. This time though, dadburn it, he's going to go through with it. Ring in hand, he's moments from touching knee to floor, when Patience pulls out a list of mail-order bride advertisements and declares her intention to marry a backwoods stranger, on Christmas Day. Peter has two weeks to change her mind.