After sending for a mail-order bride, a rancher struggles to win her love Max Bass fidgets as he scans the horizon for the stagecoach. His mail-order bride from back east is on that stage, but he feels no joy at the prospect of meeting her. A wannabe rancher, Max exaggerated his financial standing when he advertised for a wife; he fears that she will be disappointed or even angry, but he has no idea what he is actually in for. Catherine O'Dowd has long dreamed of being a lady, and she expects Max to make one of her. But instead of the riches Max described, she finds a hardscrabble bit of prairie that demands every drop of sweat the two of them have to give. A crooked banker wants to steal Max's land, and the weather threatens to forever erase any hope he has of raising cattle. But the most powerful force of nature in Montana is Max's new wife. If he is not careful, she will bring him down, and take the entire state with her. Originally published as Incident at Pishkin Creek.