Dianna Dewalt, a journalist with the Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette, is assigned a story she isn’t the least bit interested in—the May 15, 1881 incorporation of La Junta, Colorado. She is interested in keeping her job and someday becoming editor, so she travels via stagecoach to the small town. Arriving a week before, she endures the heat of the area and the bad manners of the men in the town as she gathers personal interest stories about the town and its incorporation. She meets a handsome man who seems out of place. Cultured accent, well-read, educated. A gaze that never quite focuses on her. And a patchwork past that doesn’t fit him. She asks around town, but nobody knows anything about him. Her investigative nose for a mystery begins twitching. She’s certain he’s keeping a secret. But what, exactly? Something criminal? Immoral? Or is she wrong about him, and he’s telling her the truth?
Samson Macon, known to his few friends as Sam, works for the local stage line as a tack and saddle maker. He keeps himself to himself because that’s the easiest way to keep a secret. He came to Junction City three years prior to escape the memories that haunted him: his wife and child died because he wasn’t a good enough doctor to save them. He simply walked away from his profession, causing a stir at the hospital in Denver and in the news. Rumors abound as to his whereabouts.
When news arrives in town about a man being arrested and charged with the murder of a missing doctor from Denver—a Michael Swanson. Dianna’s itchy scalp, now stitched by the saddle maker, means she’s onto something. Could Samson Macon and Michael Swanson be the same man? Will he let another be hung without revealing himself? If so, he isn’t the man she thought he was. She telegraphs her office and asks for information on Doctor Michael Swanson. When she receives it, she considers whether to go to the sheriff or to Samson.
Samson must decide whether to admit his past and trust that God will heal his broken heart, or forever carry the real blame for another’s death. Dianna must choose whether to break her promise or save another’s life. Both must determine what’s most important to them.