Money was scarce in post-Civil War Missouri. HIs girlfriend's father promised to wed his only daughter, Maggie, to the man who could buy her a certain showcase farm. So James Bayless and his best friend Lem, struck out for the goldfields of Colorado. Disaster reigned when a rattlesnake bit Lem a mile out from the small town of Aria, in the Colorado foothills. Bayless shot the head off the snake but the gunshot spooked the horses. James raced by foot to the nearest town for a doctor. Two old men who watched Bayless run into town after his horses, made the grieving young man an unusual offer. Weeks earlier, the town was swindled by a traveling show. They duped the townsfolk into wagering on footraces, and then entered a "ringer" into the competition. The traveling show was repeating their con on the nearby town of Harmony--and now the folks of Aria had a ringer of their own. But Bayless was about to learn a hard lesson: trickier than winning his fortune in gold, would be getting home to Missouri with it, alive.