But when his son is taken away from him, he's left with nothing but the Memphis bar he manages. Then he hires Fay, a young white waitress, who has a volatile brother named Carl in tow. Nickel finds himself consumed with the idea of Taft -- Fay and Carl's dead father -- and begins to reconstruct the life of a man he never met. But his sympathies for these lost souls soon take him down a twisting path into the lives of strangers...

    The streets of New Orleans beckon unless she can quickly find another job. Unemployed and desperate, she decides to become a Mail-Order Bride for a wealthy businessman. She arrives at Dry River with six-year-old orphaned Max to a drunk and abusive prospective groom. Connor Grey believes he is not worthy of a woman’s love because of his scarred face. He sees Anna being abused, and after stepping in to help is left with her and the child. Anna’s situation is now dire. She came to marry one man, dare she wed another? How could a marriage between her and Connor work, even if the hand of fate appears to be pushing them together?