Marlena Beauregard abandoned her life in the west to pursue her dream of studying beneath the great Opera Queen. Only that dream becomes a nightmare she can't escape, and she is forced to take matters into her own hands. When she comes face-to-face with the man who stole her heart as a youth in Virginia City, she is torn between the world she left behind and the future she had planned, knowing that whichever one she chooses, a loved one will be sacrificed. Dalton Cunningham is known as a ruthless hired gun on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He is fierce, deadly and protective of those he loves. The son of a Madam and raised among brothels, he has no illusions about his place in the world. But when an unexpected voyage lands him in the thick of Boston society and he is bewitched by a beautiful aristocratic songstress, his heart is set, and he will not be denied. Yet his love has put her life in danger. From the ornate mansions of Boston to the wild, windblown slopes of the Sierras, they must fight to overcome the boundaries of propriety, peril and pride.