Cat Browning's moment of triumph has finally come in a Boston courtroom. A brilliant young lawyer with a promising future, she's just won her first big criminal case, but still, she questions the direction her life has taken. Putting her ambitions on the back burner, she decides to join her best friend Annie on a vacation in the tiny town of Cougar Valley, Oregon - 3,000 miles and a world away.While the majestic splendor of eastern Oregon's ranch lands and the warm intimacy of small-town life cast a spell on Cat, it is her idyllic romance with the irresistible Scott McCullough, Cougar Valley's golden boy, that truly captures her heart. Cat is smitten, yet chooses to chalk it up to a whirlwind romance - until Scott turns up on her Boston doorstep to take her back to the place she so quickly learned to love.Marriage to Scott is only the beginning of Cat's remarkable journey. Soon, she is swept into the life of the sprawling family ranch and into the complex heart of the McCullough clan, where she'll forge strong bonds with Red, her larger-than-life father-in-law; his elusive wife, Sarah; Jenny, Scott's fiercely independent grandmother; and Torie, his headstrong sister, who is determined to marry a man both families are dead set against.But when tragedy strikes and Cat suddenly finds herself a widow pregnant with Scott's baby, she must fight her way back from despair to make a new life for herself and her child. Through it all, her love and friendship with the McCulloughs will endure - even as she finds romance with a new man. But when long-held family secrets threaten to destroy her happiness, Cat is faced with the most difficult choices of her life...choices that test her true loyalties and shape the future of her unique destiny.