Fortunately, Clare Kincaid’s career as a nurse in a small private California hospital did not leave her too much time to reflect on the weaknesses of her own muddled heart. For she was still obsessed by an emotional attachment for her adoptive brother, Larry, and uncertain if she cared enough to marry the staff doctor who offered her somewhat insecure anchorage.

Then her problem was complicated by her assignment to a patient who was a television star and who, on his recovery, persuaded Clare to be interviewed on his show. Unexpectedly, she proved a hit and found herself a new TV personality. And that posed a complication she had not foreseen: her beloved Larry wanted Clare to use her success to further his ambitions.

Although she was a devoted and dedicated nurse and respected the nursing profession, Sandra’s real enthusiasm was reserved for the stage and the glamour of the footlights. Therefore she eagerly seized the opportunity to be a backstage nurse for a touring theatrical company, even though it meant leaving the young doctor who wanted to marry her and going barnstorming.

Only another man, another love could help Nurse Felicia Madison recover from the heratache of Dr. Jim Carmichael’s tragic death, but…which man? Garth Lindell, who wasn’t at all like Jim; or Bill Carruthers, who could have been his double…?

When Jim Carmichael, a dedicated young doctor and heir to the Carmichael lumber empire, was killed in a laboratory accident, the lovely nurse he was secretly engaged to tried to lose herself in a non-stop round of parties. Instead, she almost lost her job. Shocked at how close she had come to wrecking her career, Felicia Madison decided she needed a complete change of scene. On impulse she answered an ad for a nurse at one of the Carmichael Corporation’s remote lumber camps. But Felicia’s welcome to Windy Ridge — from Garth Lindell, the camp foreman — wasn’t exactly a warm one. For some reason, the rugged lumberman took an on-sight dislike to her. And while the timber town was certainly a change from the big city, forgetting Jim wasn’t going to be any easier — not with Bill Carruthers around. The company helicopter pilot looked so much like Jim, Felicia couldn’t help being attracted to him. But was it Bill she thought she was falling in love with, or was it Jim all over again?

Dark-haired Natalie Evans had come from her small hometown of Millen to work in Dallas’s St. Anne’s Hospital, hoping to be able to pay off the debt that she had accrued from her late mother’s illness. She also hoped to continue her romance with Nick Delaney, even though it would have to be via long distance.

Two months passed and Natalie’s bills were under control, but one day she came home from the hospital and found a letter from Nick saying that he had fallen in love with someone else. For days Natalie went around in a shattered state — until the unexpected happened. Gus March, the top cancer surgeon, requested that Natalie be assigned to the special cancer wing and become a member of his surgical team. Natalie was thrilled, for the gray-eyed doctor hele the top place on her list of revered surgeons. And when he enlisted her aid in finding out who was responsible for the disappearance of drugs from his private inventory, she responded with more that just professional alacrity.

But Natalie soon discovered that the pilferage of narcotics involved something much more serious — the attempted hijacking of Gus’s new SA-3 formula, a non-narcotic pain deterrent that might work on terminal patients. And Natalie, as a nurse who looked beyond tomorrow, realized that if the SA-3 were to be saved, both her life and that of Gus would be in danger.

After a disastrous love affair, Kate had felt she never wanted to live in the country again, and firmly turned herself into a town girl. So when her dental surgeon boss suggested that she help out, temporarily, a colleague of his in a small country town, she was determined to stay there no longer than was necessary…