I turned off the busy highway into the rest area with its thicket of shade trees that offered respite from the hot sun. A few campers were parked under the trees, and children played on the swings and slides. From the stone fireplaces rose the aroma of grilled hamburgers, and I realized that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It was nearly four o’clock, and I had been driving north for hours.

The scenic route along the Hudson River with the brooding Catskill Mountains in the background had been pleasant, but now I had reached the flat farmland of central New York, and the traveling had become monotonous.

I put my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes. In less than two hours, I should reach Elm Forks on the St. Lawrence River, where Dr. Tate said I could catch the car ferry to Cory Island. I would spend the next eight weeks at Camp Shandelee as camp nurse for overweight adolescent girls.

After the death of her father in Korea, Margo Hale and her mother, Tonia, lived with Margo’s Aunt Elinor — and when Tonia gave up her fight for life without the man she loved, Margo looked upon her aunt as her sole relative. Dimly, she knew that her mother’s people, the Spanish Margiols, had vineyards in California, but she also knew that the Margiols had renounced her mother when she married an outsider.

Then, at Elinor Hale’s funeral, Vincent Margiol appeared — to command Margo to come to the Big M to nurse his seriously ill sister, Maria. Margo’s first impulse was to refuse this imperious uncle, but second thoughts told her that she had nothing to gain by remaining in San Francisco. Dr. Greg Forbes was not interested in a poor young nurse, and Jay Dexter, although charming and wealthy, seemed like a boy to her. She would go to Mendocino and satisfy her curiosity about her mother’s people.

To her delight, Nurse Margo found a whole new world with the Margiols, who ruled firmly, but always fairly and with integrity. And she lost her heart completely to her Aunt Maria. But that was before she had been rebuffed by Nikki Margiol, the doctor in the family and a Margiol only by adoption. All that was left for Margo — now that Aunt Maria was recovering her health — was to return to San Francisco…

Recovering from a broken love affair and in need of money to pay bills incurred during her mother’s long illness, Lovely Noel Savant agrees to attend a patient at Thorne Grotto, the hideout of Sir High Thorne, a self-made millionaire, now a recluse. Suffering from gout, Sir High is irascible, fighting Noel’s every ministration. And his physician, Dr. Young, is skilled in acupuncture but seems to ignore the proper medical treatment both of Sir Hugh and of his handsome young nephew, Jeffrey Thorne, who, stricken with tetanus after a fall from his horse, will die within hours unless he receives proper medical attention.

Mystery and adventure follow Noel as she travels with Sir Hugh to Washington, where he is to speak before the Senate regarding a conspiracy to corner the grain market. Sir Hugh is faced with treachery and deceit on all sides, even from his daughter, Carol, who has apparently abandoned her family. But both Noel and Jeff have faith in the girl, and Dr. Callum Winchester, Noel’s old flame, appears on the scene, determined to discover the truth. How Noel escapes almost certain death and finds love and happiness makes fascinating reading.

Nurse Laurel Winston, because she had had psychiatric training, was assigned to the night shift in the Suicide Prevention Center, and had the responsibility of taking phone calls from people who are ready to kill themselves, and giving them reassurance and hope. All such calls were difficult to handle, but when the caller was a young child who pulled on Laurel’s heartstrings, she almost failed to cope.

The lawless West was new to lovely young Nurse Williams — and so was danger.

When Nora Williams completed her nurse’s training and went home to the lawless West, she was determined to stay in this remote country where a nurse was so desperately needed.

But then one day, on a lonely mountain trail, as Nora was riding to a sick child, the silence was shattered by the bark of a gun. Suddenly Nora knew that the bullet had been meant for her!

Who was trying to keep this dedicated young nurse from her appointed task of helping the poor and defenseless in this wild country?