Annie Lash

After her parents' death, Annie Lash finds herself alone in St. Louis with numerous elderly suitors seeking her hand. Wanting genuine love rather than convenience, she declines them all. When a young frontiersman named Jefferson Merrick offers her the opportunity to settle in a distant frontier community, Annie accepts, drawn by the prospect of a life along the Missouri River. However, the frontier proves more perilous than she anticipated. Annie must contend with hostile Indians, river bandits, and Jefferson's political enemies. As dangerous as these external threats are the feelings developing between her and Jefferson—a rugged man working to establish civilization in the wild country around them. Annie finds herself increasingly drawn to him, even as she struggles against her own emotions.