Aaron Claridge dies while leading his pregnant wife Marty, an East Coast teacher, on the wagon trail to the West. Destitute and unprotected, she accepts a marriage of convenience with widower Clark Davis to help raise his young daughter Missie all winter, if he will pay for her return in the spring. Missie is hostile to her 'mother substitute', but as the months pass Clark achieves a rapprochement.—KGF Vissers