Bounty Hunter Lou Prophet is stalking the notorious train robber Frank Beauregard, a man with as much conscience as a rattlesnake with a baby rabbit in its craw. This snake, however, has a woman in his craw—an innocent young woman who came west from Minnesota to be the mail-order bride of a lonely rancher. Miss Mattie Anderson finds her new home high in the Colorado Rockies far from what she'd expected. She finds her husband-to-be far from what she'd expected, as well. Why is his hired man so tongue-tied? Who's the dead man in the shallow grave out back? As more dead are piled high and the lead flies like snowflakes in a prairie blizzard, Mattie begins to wonder if she hasn't promised herself to the devil himself. Only Lou Prophet can save her from the ties that not only bind but threaten to hang her...