Cotton Pickens gets fired from his job as sheriff of Doubtful, Wyoming, a booming mining town and mourns the loss of his murdered horse, Critter, when a flashy stage show arrives in town and stirs up the locals, and after a man is found stabbed to death, a bank safe gets blown up, and the sheriff from another county shows up, Cotton begins to suspect that there is a plot to take over Doubtful.

Edward Dugan left his home in Boston with a bequest from his father--mining certificates giving him ownership of the Christabel mine. Although they have a face value of 250,000 dollars, the mine has been declared worthless. However, Henry Christian, the man who originally sold the mining stock to Dugan's father, has offered to buy back the stock certificates for 1,500 dollars. Since he has no money, Dugan decides to walk the 3,000 miles to Potts Valley...

"There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert... The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away. But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge--and a shot at redemption. Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for...