Patience Callahan is twenty-five and fast becoming an old maid. But she's spent most of her life dreaming over romantic European literature and wants a dashing d'Artagnan, not a bookish Bob Cratchit. Alas, the Colorado town of Gilman is chock-full of Cratchit's without a d'Artagnan in sight.Peter Foote, the general store owner, has been in love with Patience for seven years. But every time he's on the verge of proposing, she cuts him off; he can only imagine on purpose. This time though, dadburn it, he's going to go through with it.Ring in hand, he's moments from touching knee to floor, when Patience pulls out a list of mail-order bride advertisements and declares her intention to marry a backwoods stranger, on Christmas Day.Peter has two weeks to change her mind.