be careful what you wish for because you just might get itzara ruiz is a normal california girl on the verge of graduating from high school and thinking about her dawning future but when dusk brings a shattering lossand she discovers a priceless object in the shallows of a tide poolshe is thrust a hundredandeighty years into the past there she meets handsome ranchero javier de la venturawho has big dreams and secret sorrowsalong with his enchanting family in a land that is at once familiar and yet utterly foreignbetween cattle rustlers pirates and a growing call for statehood it is not a peaceful time to be a mexican settler in young alta california but zara must decide if shes discovered what she longs for most in the past or if her hearts three wishes can only be found in the present