In 1876, Mara Marsden discovers an old letter describing an inheritance left to her late mother by Jules Carron, a man unknown to Mara. Hoping to solve the mystery of her benefactor's identity and find a happy new life, Mara travels West. In Colorado Territory she finds Trail's End, an abandoned and uninhabitable house steeped in mystery, and two suitors: the dashing, charming Eastern gentleman, Nicholas Breckinridge, who dazzles her, and taciturn Emmett Grandison, her neighbor who covets her land. Added to the mix are a terrifying apparition that pursues her and stories of a treasure hidden on the premises. But all is not as it seems. Mara's search for the truth behind her inheritance leads her into great danger.