Joy Abigail Ryder has a dream to travel and paint the West, just as her father Jake Ryder did when he was her age. Being the year 1920, societal restrictions are not as cumbersome as they once were a decade or two earlier, but still, is she ready to travel westward as an unchaperoned female for an extended period of time? Her sweet grandmother Abby is the one who convinces her to follow her heart. Dr. Walker Flemming's wife died in a horse accident a year ago and his daughter hasn't spoken a word since. When he meets a young woman in the general store who claims that his five year old talked to her...he is stunned! However, his aunt, having previously encountered the woman on a train, denigrates her character. Walker doesn't know whom to believe. Should he take a chance and ask the young lady to give his daughter art lessons, hoping his baby will speak again? That is, if she even did so in the first place.--Provided by publisher