At twenty-three, Daughtry Lucas knows she will end up an old maid unless she can somehow escape her overprotective father. He refuses to trust her out of his sight, keeping all prospective suitors at a distance.

A newspaper advertisement for a wife seems to offer Daughtry her only hope of escape. In a marriage by proxy, she becomes Mrs Nicholas Dawson and flees her father's ranch.

Can this marriage between strangers succeed? Or will the dark strangers from Nick's past prevent Daughtry from truly being his forever?