Montana, Winter, 1933

At fourteen Millie Chase is orphaned, and unless she does something drastic, she's going to end up living with her stepfather in a town that is a far cry from the life in Chicago she'd once known. She sets out to find her mother's friend, Ginny Baker, who she believes lives in nearby Yellowstone National Park. But when it's Ginny's husband, Nate, she encounters, Millie has doubts. Still Nate seems the lesser of two bad options.

Nate Baker has built his life around his love for his wife Ginny, his work as a winterkeeper in the Park, and minding his own business. But when he discovers Millie hiding out in a closed hotel in the park and she demands to speak with his wife, Nate sees no choice but to get involved. Of course, doing so could cost him his job in a time when jobs for fifty-year-old men are impossible to find.

Ginny Baker happily gave up the high society Chicago life she'd known for the peace and solitude of life in the wilderness. But when her brother-in-law and financial advisor reveals she and her sister have lost the fortune left to them by their parents, Ginny sees no choice but to return to Chicago to salvage what she can. The fact that she is forty-four years old and has just realized she's pregnant throws even more chaos into her life - and Nate's.

And then Nate calls with news of finding Millie...