The Calder family patriarch is known throughout Montana as a formidable adversary--a force no one in his right mind would cross. But sometimes love can make a man do crazy things . . .

Ambition drove Joe Dollarhide across the parched plains from Fort Sam Houston to Dodge City. One day, he was determined to have a spread every bit as vast and impressive as his employers'. But when a wild stampede separates him from the cattle drive, it is survival that keeps him going when most would have given up. Survival and a burning need to settle the score with Benteen Calder, the cattle boss he used to worship, the man who'd left him for dead...

Hope buoyed Sarah Foxworth when she had just five dollars to her name, traveling the dusty rails where Joe first rescued her from a violent attack, then won her heart as a cowboy in need of redemption. With dreams of becoming a doctor herself one day, she uses all her wits to save her uncle's medical practice and his reputation. But it's her own reputation that suffers when she gives birth to an illegitimate baby.

Years later, when Sarah walks into Joe's world once more, he's shaken to the core. Her dreams of becoming a doctor are dashed; her only hope is to find a better life for herself and her son--a child there's no denying is his own. Now a prosperous rancher, Joe yearns to finally make a home with Sarah and their boy. Only Joe's own road to riches has been strewn with obstacles, some looming even larger than the demons he still struggles against. But life has also shown Joe that nothing worth having ever comes easy. And that Sarah is a woman worth fighting for...