I'm Mark Calder, a very cute, straight, small and slim 9-year-old boy. It's 1875, and I've been sent to a boomtown tent city in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest to meet up with my father, who I don't really remember. The "city" is an impromptu community filled with prospectors, gamblers, grifters, hedonists, and opportunists of every kind. I've been left to wander the town and fend for myself.