In the small but bustling town of Mattawa, turn-of-the-century Oregon offers a new kind of frontier: a vast and exciting range of possibilities for women. It's a time for change, and no one is more eager to embrace new roads than self-proclaimed black sheep Hattie Taylor. If only she could embrace Jake Murdock too. But Jake has never looked at her like that-until now. Jake can't remember a time he was so confused. Hattie is off-limits. The spitfire is under his mother's protection-his protection-and he has always belonged to another. But now, with the passing of his wife, Jake feels something shift between them. Frustratingly aware of Hattie as a woman, he struggles with new feelings, new questions, new desires. But when a desperate decision born of good intentions turns out to have ugly repercussions, Hattie confronts a cruel reality she can no longer ignore: the truth of where women really stand and the actions men take to keep them there. To navigate her new world of tainted law and privileged order, Hattie will draw on the strength of the women around her-and Jake will learn what it truly means to support the woman he loves