Wesley Curnow, a young Cornish miner, arrives in the United States to seek an uncle who is working on the mines in Missouri. Taking passage on a boat from New York, bound for New Orleans, he meets up with a charismatic U.S. marshal who is en route to the western territories to bring law to the area.After a gun fight with pirates on the Mississippi River and an encounter with an attractive half-Mexican croupier, Wes parts company with his companions only to find his uncle has been forced to move away. Wes faces a serious altercation with German miners, meets and old 'Mountainman' who teaches him proficiency with a revolver, and then faces a journey overland through inhospitable country. But can he survive the journey?