Miss Anne Sinclair returns home from her London debut, because her sponsoring aunt is angry that Anne has refused two offers of marriage from wealthy but unlovable gentlemen. She finds her country estate sadly changed; widowed father remarried to a girl Annes age, her beloved race horses up for sale, and even Annes own room is occupied by the new Lady Sinclairs domineering half-sister. A new friend, Lord Dunstan soon captures her heart. Then she is told he is betrothed to marry a woman who is wealthy and beautiful. Has happiness fled forever?

Broken-hearted after losing the only woman he ever loved to another man, Reverend Joshua Holmes returns to England. But after thirty years, he is summoned to Willow Creek, Arizona. His rival has died, and his deathbed request is for Josh to marry Amanda and keep her safe from harm. But he fears she will not accept his steadfast love. Fearing for her life, Amanda Gregory, or Golden Lady to the Apaches amongst whom she has lived, is forced to flee the white agents infiltrating the reservation. Amanda seeks refuge until Joshua arrives from England. Once she sees him again, her heart reawakens, and she believes true love could happen a second time around. But just as she becomes Joshua’s wife, she worries she will again be made a widow by the enemies from her past.

In African American culture the preacher has traditionally held many roles: minister of faith, orator, politician, idealist, and most importantly, leader. But the preacher was also traditionally male, and in many ways this advanced the perception that African American women were incapable of questioning the authority of black men. Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, and Terry McMillan wrote of flawed African American preachers, empowering their female characters by exposing the notion of the black preacher as beyond reproach. The writings of these five women warn African American women--and society as a whole--of the power of the religious functionaries who insist that the self must be virtually obliterated in order for salvation to be attained.