Gunslinger turned playwright Opal Calahan is handy with a pistol and even handier with a pen. She arrives in town dreaming of creating the new Wylder Playhouse. Rugged prospector Heath Rawdon tantalizes as her perfect leading man—but why does he hate theaters? And why does he have a price on his head? Heath is running from his past and wrestling mental demons. Thanks to his visit to the playhouse in the lawless Ballarat goldfields, he lost his mate and his goldmine—and got slammed with the charge of murder. The last thing he needs is a beautiful, charming playwright disturbing his harsh existence. But feisty Opal has secrets and needs his help. Together they banter, dance, face theatrical disaster, and combat danger in a race to rewrite their future and achieve their dreams.

Adelaide Willowby is having a bad day. It’s a week before Christmas and she has just kicked out the love of her life. Her sister and her daughter are barely speaking to her, one of her best girls is getting married, and ownership of the Wylder County Social Club is in jeopardy. Now she has landed in jail—for murder. Russ Holt has relied on alcohol to quiet the ghosts from his past for far too long. His latest bender has caused him to let down both Addie and his son, and he knows something has to change. When a stranger in town is found dead and Miss Adelaide is arrested for murder, Russ smells a rat. Can he battle his demons, hunt down the real killer, and win back the woman he loves?

Eliza Jane O'Hanlan is called west to care for her ailing mother. Raised by a spinster aunt, she only knows that her mother is a successful businesswoman. When she arrives in Wylder she is shocked to learn her mother is the town madam. But the secrets don't end there… Doctor Sam "Coyote" Sullivan saw enough suffering and dying in the war to last a lifetime. He is more than happy to help the town madam keep her girls free of disease—and worse. The moment she arrives in town, the madam's daughter makes it clear she doesn't approve of her mother's unconventional methods—or him. Before long, Eliza doesn't just have the town of Wylder in a stir. She has Coyote pretty stirred up, too.

The Duke of Sandringham arrives in the raw frontier town of Wylder to explore nearby copper mines, but soon contracts typhoid. The only person who can safely nurse him back to health is the kitchen drudge, Catriona, who survived the typhoid fever that took her parents. The duke’s awkward ginger-haired nephew Hugo, in turn, saves Cat’s life, and later her virtue, yet she ignores him despite his interest, in favor of her employer’s handsome ne’er-do-well son. Lovely raven-haired Cat falls afoul of the jealous ladies in the duke’s party. Falsely accused of stealing, Catriona is banished and becomes the prize to be won at the local brothel auction… But Hugo knows nothing of the auction. What rescue can be hoped?

Ghostly gunslinger Zachariah is condemned to spend eternity in the room now inhabited by Blossom Cherry, an easygoing yet hot-blooded doxie. Their scrappy relationship endures though he taunts and aggravates her. He also exacts fitting vengeance on those clients who dare, to their eternal regret, mistreat his feisty roommate. The attraction between the young prostitute and the outlaw intensifies to undeniable, unquenchable, unearthly desire until Zak becomes a passionate spectral lover. But Blossom's uneasy past catches up with her by way of a Wanted poster and a bulldog Pinkerton agent. Zach urges her to dig up his ill-gotten hoard and flee an unjust hanging, yet she won't leave him to wander the room—or eternity—alone.