"A peaceful Sunday morning shatters when Dry Creek, California's schoolhouse burns to the ground, the first of many fires. Citizens rally around Sheriff Maud Overstreet, a recently elected 30-something spinster, to help extinguish the flames. Women in the 1870s have little control over their lives and the women of Dry Creek look to Maud as an example of women's progress. Maud soon appoints a woman as fire chief. Then several women choose to...