The time has come for the nine brothers to go to work - five of them on the building of a new church near Dianna's and Dana's ranches, four of them on the erection of a ranch house for Marianne, Joyeux, and Noelle. But a surprise visitor, a tall woman in black riding a black horse, changes everything. So does Adam's appeal to the five deputies of Sheriff Teddy Westcott to switch allegiances and side with what they know to be good and right. And so does Dianna's growing affection for Reuben and Brett David and Dana's for their brother Michael. Yet it is the feisty Australian widow Noelle who moves first to win the man she has quickly grown to respect and admire and desire. In so doing, the native of Brisbane sets all kinds of wheels in motion in New Mexico, wheels that can never be brought to a stop.
