UTAH TERRITORY, 1869 In Mormon country, where plural marriage is an accepted way of life, two sisters, Montana and Zelda Sudsway, are expected to follow suite and marry into polygamy. Jane, a 16-year old immigrant living with them, is hopelessly in love with their brother, Sydney, but he is betrothed to Helen, the beauty of Bear River Valley. Knowing that Sydney holds deed to the Sudsway pioneer home, Helen refuses to take vows until his sisters are married and out of the house. With the young men of their settlement either panning for gold in the North or setting rails for the Union Pacific, what are the girls to do? The joining of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Brigham Young's edict, boycotting "gentile" entrepreneurs who threaten to dominate Salt Lake City commerce, and the emergence of the anti-Mormon City of Corinne-these conflicts form the historical backdrop to a star-crossed love story in Baiting on the Bear.