Laila Mitchell has little money, her medical knowledge, a medicine kit, and the clothes on her back when she sets out to search for her last living relatives in 1890's Oregon. Stranded in the Snake River Canyon, she settles into a small mining community named Venture and from there she serves as practical nurse to scattered miners and settlers. Laila is soon entangled in the hardships of frontier life, guardianship of a "wild child" and reluctant attraction to peach rancher and hotel owner, Ash Corbett. As she faces problems with courage and verve, a magical, never-dreamed-of future opens. Which can be hers, if only she can let go of her heart-breaking past.