In the small but bustling town of Mattawa, turn-of-the-century Oregon offers a new kind of frontier: a vast and exciting range of possibilities for women. No one is more eager to embrace new roads than self-proclaimed black sheep Hattie Taylor. If only she could embrace Jake Murdock too. But Jake has never looked at her like that until now. When a desperate decision born of good intentions turns out to have ugly repercussions, Hattie confronts a cruel reality she can no longer ignore: the truth of where women really stand and the actions men take to keep them there.