"Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, so that I may accompany you to San Francisco de Asis and help you stop this war?"

Gloria Meriwether-Astor, determined to end the invasion her father and a power-hungry diplomat started, has found safety with the witches of the river canyons in the Wild West. But how can one young lady without so much as a hat to her name challenge a kingdom? Confronted with the solution—marriage—she has two choices: accept the help she needs, or return to Philadelphia alone and a failure. So, in the company of riverboat captain Stan Fremont—the dashing rogue she must now call husband—she sets off for the capital to negotiate with the Viceroy. But with an entire country mobilizing for war, the attempt could mean her life—and the life of the one person she is beginning to care for ...