The Mysterious Rider by Grey Zane is a novel about the love and happiness that are the main goals of human life. The story tells us about life of Columbine, a young girl with kind heart who never knew what the hate is. She loved life and everybody liked her, especially the rancher Bellounds, a man who was like a father for her through all her life. Columbine found out that she is not his daughter when she was 19. The rancher had told her about that and also he said that she will marry his son Jack, who will come home after being away (he was in jail but Columbine didn’t know that). Columbine didn’t like Jack because he was cruel and selfish since his childhood, but father always loved him and forgave him everything, so he wanted him to marry the best girl he knew because she will be the one who will make him happy: “Jack, she's shy an' strange, an' deep, too. If you ever win her heart you'll be richer than if you owned all the gold in the Rockies”.