Carley is a midwife/nurse in Hayden, Kentucky, where she rides a horse, along with her protective dog into the Appalachian wilderness to give health care to back-woods people and to deliver babies.

Her life becomes complicated when oil is discovered back home on her ranch in Wyoming, turning her and her niece into millionaires. Carley is unchanged by this new turn of events since she has had to deal with the death of her parents, leaving her and her niece as the only surviving members of their family.

While trying to recover from her grief, take care of her newly orphaned niece, and continue to serve the Appalachian people, she realizes someone is trying to kill her. Several attempts have not succeeded yet, but they are definitely becoming more intense, so much so, that the sheriff has put an armed guard on her 24/7. However the assassin is wiley enough to foil multiple attempts to neutralize him. He is determined to kill Carley and no puny armed guard is going to deter him. He wants the millions she just inherited for himself.

In his plan, the niece is the key to his success. If Carley dies, the niece will become sole inheritor of the money. This newly rich young girl will provide the access he needs to the money because he is her father.