Sarah Turner tends the lock on the Lehigh Canal in Walnutport, Pennsylvania. She'd like nothing better than to get away from the canal, having enough of it as a child when she led the mules that pulled her father's boat. But being a widow with three small children, she seems to have no other option. Sarah isn't looking for love again, but should she ever find it, she knows it could never be with a canal man. Elias Brooks has left his newspaper job in Easton to captain the canal boat bequeathed to him by his grandfather. When he stops at the lock, Elias meets Sarah, a pretty woman with determination and courage, and her three children, who seem eager for his attention. Could a woman like her ever look past the ugly red birthmark on the side of his face and see the heart within? Sarah's side job is baking bread for boatmen. . .and one good-looking blacksmith named Patrick O'Grady. Who will unlock the key to Sarah's heart—the boatman or the blacksmith?