Born a girl during the Civil War, Jack has been passing as a boy in the slums of Five Points, Manhattan since running away from an orphans' home at age eight. Unlike other boys he knows, he can't get a job at sea for fear that his secret will be discovered in the close confines of a ship. Instead he makes his living at petty thievery, surviving pocket watch-to-pocket watch until he discovers a talent for gambling. But by nineteen, Jack's ambitions are beginning to outgrow his frayed clothes. He spends his days dreaming of striking it rich and finding his childhood sweetheart, Lucy, who left with her mother for the West four years ago. When the opportunity to steal a diamond necklace for a wealthy client comes his way he takes it. But finishing the job may require much more than he bargained for-especially since the diamonds are in the hands of Lucy's rapacious stepfather, in a rowdy mining town in the Arizona Territory.