The last thing that Gillian Metcalf remembers before she passes out is being aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, where she witnessed a dog disappearing as if it were a phantom. Now she's aboard the riverboat, Ida Belle, traveling down the muddy Mississippi. It is 1870, where men carry guns and throw knives. It is a time where reputations mean everything. Before she can determine how she's miraculously stepped from one world into another, she is being forced to marry Zachary Creighton. Trouble follows the man and it looks like she's along for the ride.

Zachary Creighton, a gambler with one goal: to win back Creighton Manor. Marriage was not part of the plan. To keep peace with his reluctant bride, he makes a bargain with her. He needs someone to tutor his nephew Tyler, and she needs a roof over her head until they can annul their sham of a marriage. However, he finds himself falling for her charms.