"Papa" Joseph Levine and his granddaughter, Mary Jane, run a small weekly newspaper in newly settled Fargo, Dakota Territories. Following Papa's bout with illness, he puts an ad in the Minneapolis Tribune for an assistant. At the most opportune time, handsome, meticulous Johathan Bohner appears. Jonathan and Mary Jane get off on the wrong foot from the start, but before long their sparks turn to kindling, and love begins to heat up. Jonathan soon lets it slip that he has an ulterior motive, which he calls his "crusade," and he challenges Mary Jane to seek for her crusade as well. With the appearance of a minister from Chicago and a schoolteacher from Rochester, MN, life in Fargo blossoms. Even Libbie and Col. George Custer put in an unexpected appearance. When Jonathan goes to help the Indians out on the prairie, fate steps in and Mary Jane fears she has lost her true love. Can they possibly find a future together on the prairie in the 1870s?