The year is 1849 and eighteen-year-old William Dwinelle faces the dangers of the trip to the gold fields of California. He risks the less-known jungle route that takes him across the Isthmus of Panama, braving cholera, bandits, and the steamy menace of Panama City, and the troubled voyage to San Francisco.

William's quest is more than riches - he is on the trail of a man who abandoned his friend Elizabeth, and when he reaches the western shore he encounters both murder and revenge among the desperate gold seekers in a land where friendship is the real treasure.