After fifteen long, dangerous years in the service, Navy SEAL Clay Pickett is ready for his new mission: build a model sustainable community in Chance Creek, Montana, and show the world an exciting alternative to a consumption-based life. He's waited years for this chance, but he'll lose it if he doesn't find a wife—fast—in order to fulfill the demands of the unpredictable billionaire who's funding the project. He's got just the woman for the job in mind: beautiful, dedicated Nora Ridgeway. Too bad she's not interested in rushing to the altar.
When Nora leaves her job as a school teacher in Baltimore to live a simpler, Jane Austen style life in Montana with her friends, she's relieved to escape the escalating threats of violence from an unknown student stalker, but she can't help feeling she's abandoned the other high schoolers who put their faith in her. She's torn about Clay's advances, too. On the one hand she's never met anyone like the strong, sexy SEAL. On the other hand, life's taught her to take relationships slow—and Clay's on a deadline. But when trouble starts stalking her at Chance Creek, Nora begins to wonder if she's left her past behind after all.