Two families, searching for wealth, adventure, and a new way of life are thrown together in the California goldfields of the 1850s. This is a story of their journeys to this wild frontier and their struggles for survival against bandits, animal attacks, harsh winters, natural disasters and their own personal demons. Whoever possesses the gold nugget talisman has their life influenced by the power of this mysterious stone. Tenny Woods’ experience of a religious epiphany coincident with the discovery of a rich gold deposit convinces him that he is God’s chosen messenger. Obsessed by a religious fever, he abandons his family to preach the Lord’s word. On a return trip, a raging winter storm confines him to an abandoned cabin without food, where he gradually loses his Faith and descends into madness. His treatment of his beautiful wife, Rachel, sends her into the arms of Jonathan Sarsfield, whose untimely death sets the stage for her taking his son Josh as her lover.This is the final step in Tenny's breakdown. In an insane rage, he kills Rachel and Josh's baby. Josh's revenge for the murder of his lover and son takes his hunt for Tenny throughout the camps of the Motherlode and into the mountains to an eventual showdown.