David Strathairn, reader.

William Tell Sackett, oldest of five brothers including Tyrel and Orrin, finds an old gold mine deep in the mountains of Colorado, once worked by conquistadors hundreds of years before. He also finds a young girl, Angie Kerry, who came with her grandfather to mine the gold. The grandfather has died, and she fights a daily battle for survival until Tell rescues her. Tell has a knack for collecting dangerous enemies. The Bigalows, a group of rough brothers with plenty of nerve but very poor judgment, want him for killing their brother, Wes, in a shootout over cheating at cards. Will Boyd wants to get even with Tell for humiliating him after another saloon altercation. Kid Newton is just a would-be bad man running with the wrong crowd. With Angie and Cap Roundtree, a friend of Tyrel and Orrin's, Tell returns to the hidden valley deep in the mountains to bring out the gold. But he soon learns his enemies have banded together and found the hidden entrance to the valley. Both groups are trapped, however, when the entrance is buried by an early snow fall. Time period: 1874-1875.