Cornelia Stewart had it all: heiress to a vast shipping fortune, member of San Francisco's aristocracy, a woman whose captivating beauty and manner caused heads to turn, eyebrows to raise. But she loved Avery Curran, a restless man who deserted her to pursue his first love--the gold mines of the Yukon. Determined to find and marry Avery, Corrie journeys north, where gold-hungry prospectors ravage the untamed riches of Alaska, where laws have no meaning and pretty women are assumed to serve only one purpose. Pursued by an evil and treacherous man whose only claim to stake is her lovely body, Corrie enlists the aid of Quade Hill, mysterious Chicago journalist, a man she never meant to love--a love she might never want to end.