When two teenage boys visit an old mining town, they encounter a holdover from the past, an elderly mining engineer who tells the boys of the glories of the gold mining days of the past. When this old miner dies in a fire, the boys find themselves involved in more than they had bargained for. Based on a true story from the actual gold mining town of Gold Hill, North Carolina, this fictional tale winds the hilarious high jinks of local teens from nearby Salisbury in 1958, with the mystery of the old miner's death. The book's historical descriptions of Salisbury gives the reader a unique feel for life in this town in the 1950s as well as the gold mining past of the local area.