This story follows 2 different visitors to the mountain just days before the infamous eruption occurs. Bandit is going to the mountain with 3 of her friends; Reginald, Snowshoe and Wolfie, and have trouble finding some lodgings. The first place they try, the lodge run by Harry Truman who became an icon with Mount St. Helens' awakening, did not work. But they find salvation elsewhere at another lodge that was ran by 17-year old Candi and her family. Candi is also a great admirer of geologist David Johnston, who takes coffee at her hotel, and she becomes something of his "groupette."