Set against the backdrop of the majestic San Juan Mountains and spectacular San Luis Valley, Colorado, the story begins with a mining explosion in Cripple Creek in 1891, and ends one year later with the conflagration of Creede. Forged in the fires of a mining disaster, a town fire, a train robbery, a kidnapping, an attempted rape, a brother's betrayal, and a father's execution, the hero and heroine's love triumphs.