Sharper Wade rides into Virginia City more by chance than intent. He'd heard about the Comstock Lode and its vast quantities of gold and silver, but his own concerns are limited to feeding himself and his horse. When he intervenes in a brutal attack on a defenceless girl and her grandfather by three cowboys, he ends up in jail accused of murder. But a witness exonerates him - freeing Sharper to set out on the killers' trail...