Since the marriage is in name only, the pair keep separate quarters. In exchange, Marty agrees to marry Clark and provide a maternal influence for his young daughter Missie ( Skye McCole Bartusiak). Clark offers to give her a place to stay for the winter and provide her with the fare for the wagon train heading back East in the spring. Desperate, she accepts the proposal offered by widower Clark Davis ( Dale Midkiff).

Expecting her late husband's baby, Marty has nowhere to go and needs a place to stay through the winter. Marty Claridge ( Katherine Heigl) has just moved out to the West with her husband Aaron Claridge (Oliver Macready), who dies in a riding accident shortly after. The others are Love's Enduring Promise (2004), Love's Long Journey (2005), Love's Abiding Joy (2006), Love's Unending Legacy (2007), Love's Unfolding Dream (2007), Love Takes Wing (2009), Love Finds a Home (2009), and Love's Christmas Journey (2011). The order of the films to follow are the two prequels, Love Begins (2011) and Love's Everlasting Courage (2011), with Love Comes Softly as the original. It is the first in a series of television movies made for Hallmark Channel based on the books and produced for Hallmark by Larry Levinson Productions. It was directed by Michael Landon Jr., and stars Katherine Heigl as a young woman named Marty Claridge. It originally aired on Hallmark Channel on April 13, 2003. While the rest of the films, excluding the prequels, follow the lives of Missy and, eventually, her family, this story does not include her and is set at an unspecified point, part way through the series.Love Comes Softly is a 2003 made-for-television Christian drama film set in the 19th century, based on a series of books by Janette Oke. Clark and Marty were introduced in Love Comes Softly along with Clark's daughter Missy. The story focuses on Ellie King (née Davis) and Aaron Davis, the now adult children of Clark and Marty Davis and half-siblings of Missy Davis. It aired on Hallmark Channel on November 5, 2011. Love's Christmas Journey is a 2011 made-for-television Christian drama film based on a series of books by Janette Oke. American TV series or program Love's Christmas Journey

Love comes softly book set