Short-fused Charlie Falcon, owner of the vast Cottonwood Ranch in 1880 Colorado, is at the end of his rope when it comes to his four bachelor sons. Worried that not one of them has shown an interest in marrying, and concerned about the future of his holdings without heirs, he convinces his wife, Miranda, to aid him in a plot used by every culture the world around: mail order brides.
The first to arrive is Calla Mackenzie, being matched to the attractive but taciturn eldest son, Cody.
Calla is a lovely young woman, who has been on her own since the deaths of her parents. That much of her background is hard fact, which she can reveal to her prospective in-laws without a qualm.
What she cannot reveal is how she has made her living for some ten years: that of "grifting" or "flimflamming" victims out of their currency via various slightly illegal schemes.
While she is busy adjusting to the daily routine of life on a ranch, and to what she had never expected from marriage, Sheriff Nate Burns of Pasto Verde is also busy. Doing his job. Overseeing the townspeople. And collecting Wanted Posters. One of which is printed with a likeness remarkably like Calla's.
With monumental deception on both sides of the family, Calla and Cody are caught in the middle, both with their own set of secrets. Each had just barely begun to trust the other, after a hastily arranged marriage. But, with the bonds suddenly broken, can they ever learn to trust again?
