A shot-gun wedding to a stranger wasn't Sarah McLeod's first choice to escape her abusive stepfather but her new husband Jackson Kellar's calm dignity gives her hope that she might finally achieve the happiness she's sought all her life. Until she realizes that Jackson has already given his heart to another man.

Even as ranch hand Jackson Kellar's love for his new bride deepens he cannot shake his desire for his best friend and ranch owner Nate Campbell. Nate thought he'd found the perfect wife in Sarah, a woman who has the spirit and grit to survive life on the Texas frontier. A twist of fate has left him standing helplessly aside as Sarah slowly falls in love with his best friend and lover.

After Sarah and Jackson are offered an opportunity at independence away from Nate's ranch, they're faced with a difficult choice—one that will give Sarah a respectable life but will destroy the two men's relationship forever. Or they can accept Nate's more scandalous solution and face a judgmental society's censure.