Julia Cavanaugh has never left New York. But in 1889, the young woman rides the orphan train west to deliver the girls in her care to new families. After Julia's final stop in Montana, she plans to kick the dust off her heels and head straight back east. But upon arriving in the remote town of Lonesome Prairie, she learns to her horror that she is also supposed to be delivered-into the hands of an uncouth miner who carries a bill of purchase for his new "bride." Julia turns to a respected circuit preacher to protect her from the marriage, but with no return fare, no home, and few friends, her options are bleak. What is God's plan for a lonely woman stranded in the middle of the vast Montana prairie?