When Ruby McCoy arrives in Fairplay, her ornate carriage is followed by an entourage who heft steamer trunks, hatboxes, and traveling bags into the hotel…where she has booked the entire second floor. Upon her notorious gangster father's death, the now-wealthy Ruby, hiding under her mother's maiden name, set out to right her father's wrongs. Ruby is determined to spend every penny of her inherited "blood money" on those who paid the price for her father's crimes.

Sheriff Rex Truett doesn't trust Ruby and doesn't care who knows it. The keeper of Fairplay's law and order makes it his business to find out why a stranger—especially a beautiful, spoiled, rich, female stranger—would set up businesses, donate to schools, hire workmen to rebuild houses, and provide access to the best medical care. But when a typhoid epidemic sweeps through the city, he is forced to reconsider.

Will Rex blame Ruby for her father's sins? Or will he accept the possibility that she is trying to create—and feel—the peace her father stole?