After parting ways with the girl he loved, Abe has decided he's done with Utah. Not being white or Mormon, he has felt the sting of prejudice on many occasions. His adopted mother, however, doesn't want to live the rest of her life away from the Saints. So he promises to find a group of Mormons living elsewhere, somewhere they can live together. He eventually settles on Snowflake, Arizona.
He doesn't realize that Snowflake may just give him another chance at love, as well. Maddie Stratton is a schoolteacher, still mourning the loss of her fiancé a few years earlier. She lives with her sister's family, and has agreed to marry solid, good-hearted Edward, though her heart isn't in it. She knows she doesn't feel the same for him as she did for Roland, but tries to reconcile herself to a practical marriage, in hopes that love will come later.
Maddie plans to go with her sister's family to be sealed in the temple in St. George. Her sister has 2 little kids, and a 3rd on the way, so she will need Maddie's help on the trail. It's a bit worrisome that her brother-in-law will be the only man on the trip. Then Abe comes to town. He needs to get back to St. George right away to meet up with his mother, and is happy to jump in with Maddie's family.
Their 3-week journey on the trail will test all of them beyond what they could have imagined, but it may be just Abe needs to grow some important relationships--with God, and perhaps with Maddie, as well.
This was a companion to the "House on the Hill" novel. I liked the first better, probably because this one didn't have as much of the temple history in it. Vivid descriptions of the perils of life on the trail, even though it was a much shorter trek than the original pioneers experienced.