In 1876 brash young fugitive Nathaniel Larrabee takes a series of wrong turns on his way from Missouri to the gold fields of the Dakota Territory and finds himself in a north Florida town every bit as wild and bountiful as the frontier he was seeking. It's a strange place where the land and weather are as unpredictable as the politics, where the fate of the nation turns on a single corrupt ballot box, and gold grows on trees. When Larrabee's allegiance shifts from the devious, manipulative John Howard, the two become bitter enemies with more than one innocent caught between them. As Larrabee makes a life for himself in Florida, he comes to terms with three head-strong sisters, Caroline, Anna, and Martha Newhouse, and finds his fate bound up with theirs. At the same time, his struggle to make a living leads him through a gauntlet of historic events--a rigged presidential election, a devastating yellow fever epidemic, the depredations of a notorious black outlaw and his Irish priest accomplice, catastrophic freezes, boom and bust. With the dawn of a new century comes a surprising turn of events that shakes the lives of the adversaries, facing Howard to face a future for which he is ill prepared and compelling Larrabee to confront at last his unquiet past.