Lily Wright flees her cruel husband for the promise of freedom and opportunity in Colorado, but brutality and vice lurk in the remote Rocky Mountains of the 1870s. In a time when men control every woman's destiny, Lily craves independence. Taking advantage of a gold rush, she settles in a boomtown and opens a dry goods catering to the miners, outlaws, and fallen women. She builds a new life and forms bonds that banish the ghosts of her past. But Lily soon discovers the Wild West is a fool's paradise. The false-fronted saloons and shops cloak a world of addiction and violence. When she stands her ground, jealousy, injustice, and greed exact their dues in ways a lady couldn't imagine. Independence has a price. It will cost Lily her sanity and her life, unless she finds the strength and courage to make her own destiny.