The assignment that reporter Sam Reynolds had been given seemed easy enough: find out about Dr. David Mackenzie; find out what gave him his own special brand of faith. And so San left Portland for the small towns around LaGrande, to discover new people and a way of life he had never known existed.

Lovely Amber Mackenzie, a nurse, had been alone since her father’s death. But she was carrying on with the work he had begun — the small Crossroads Clinic was still open; Amber still journeyed into the canyons and mountains to help people in need. Amber’s gentle ways earned her the love of all who knew her and believed in her father’s ideals, and Sam quickly fell under he spell.

But what were these ideals? What made Amber so different from the people Sam had known before? Was it that she truly cared for others, above herself, and was willing to dedicate herself to their care? Was it that she reveled in life and saw beauty and goodness in all things?

Sam’s assignment to learn about Dr. Mackenzie turned into something more, as the young man decided to learn about himself, too. And Sam’s presence caused Amber some serious thinking, also. Although she had known and loved Dr. Robert Meacham for years, she felt unsure of herself, unready for marriage. Perhaps with Sam…

As the office nurse to prominent doctors Kosta Karadakis and Phillip Fanning, Vicki Crawford came in contact with many of the wealthy and important people in San Francisco’s high society. But if it were not for her Aunt Twila, Vicki would leave her profitable job and return to her first love — hospital-duty nursing.

So far, this was impossible. Twila had taken Vicki in and given her a home when she was orphaned at the age of nine, and it was Twila who had paid her way through nurses’ training. The debt had to be repaid, and Twila was the type of woman who did not hesitate to keep Vicki “in bondage.” What was even worse was that Twila had an investment in a gambling club, and if the social-minded Kosta ever discovered that he was courting someone whose aunt was involved in anything illegal, there would be more to pay than just a debt.

Vicki lived in an apartment in Alameda, across the bay, and when her car stalled on her one day, she met a man named Ron Newcomb — who turned out to be a resident with the county hospital. Their friendship grew, and Vicki kept shifting her interest between Kosta and Ron — until Ron became outspokenly critical of her working for a pair of society doctors whom he viewed with scorn.

Mrs. Dean skillfully blends intrigue and romance in this moving story of a young nurse who finds herself in conflict with her ideals.

Kathleen fell in love at first sight…

The Grand Canyon was a long way from New York City…

…but pretty young nurse Kathleen McMasters was ready for a big change. She became enchanted by the spectacular beauty of the West and decided that this was where she wanted to live and work.

One of the first people Kathleen met in Grand Canyon Village was little Kerry Laughlin. Kathleen was charmed by the child, and Kerry thought Kathleen would make the perfect wife for her handsome widower father, Pete.

Kathleen truly liked Pete. But she also found herself attracted to another man. Now she would have to choose between them…

Cory Hanson didn’t consider herself a man-chaser, but it was six months since her fiance, Paul Farron, had left Oregon for an engineering job with the Trask Valley project in Alaska–and she missed him! After writing Paul that she was flying out for a vacation, she gave up her apartment and her hospital job and boarded the plane for Kovarik.

Once she reached the small sawmill town of Datlow Springs, Cory had to wait two weeks for Paul’s arrival. When he finally showed up, it was with the overwhelming news that he had just gotten married.

Though Cory wanted nothing more than to return to Oregon immediately, an accident at the mill changed her plans–and laid the foundation for a surprising turn of events in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

Nurse Hanson looks like she’s in her mid-50s, the dashing doctor looks like one of those one-episode “featured actors” from Hawaii Five-O.

And for the briefest of moments I thought that was a unicorn in the background.

In the hope of hiding from her past, Nancy Rush became nursing supervisor at an out-of-the-way lumber camp in New Brunswick. She soon found the serenity she had been looking for, but she was caught unaware when she found herself falling in love with Ralph Parton, the doctor who ran the hospital. Her reaction when she discovered his love for her was not one of happiness, but of dismay; her past, she felt, could do nothing but hurt him.

To complicate matters, the wealthy Walker family was making life difficult both on a professional and personal level. Because tight-fisted Gilbert Walker, head of the family, refused to spend more money on the hospital, Nancy and Ralph were forced to work without adequate facilities — a lack which sooner or later would result in tragedy. When the tragedy came, it was quickly followed by a near-tragedy involving Gilbert Walker’s son, John.

John, handsome, reckless, and self-centered, wanted Nancy for himself. And if revealing her life in Montreal was the means to his end, he had no scruples about threatening her with it.

Meanwhile, Lois Walker, John’s sister, was using subtler but nevertheless efficient tactics to do everything she could to snare Dr. Ralph Parton.

The tiny village and the hard life of the lumberjacks add to the stark background of Nancy’s setting as she learns that everyone, in his own way, must face up to his situation. And her way, it turns out, not only overcomes the darkness of the past, but promises a very bright future indeed.