Dennis Gifford, a courageous lad not quite twenty, had traveled to San Francisco to seek his fortune in the California gold rush. However, Dennis had suffered a fate not uncommon in those lawless times when he was shanghaied by one of the toughest crooks on the coast. Desperate, he determined to seize his one slim chance of liberty and jump ship at the old Spanish town of Monterey. So it was that Dennis found himself taking refuge in the garden of a wealthy Spanish nobleman and, after a daring escapade, defending the Spaniard's daughter Rosita against the unwelcome attentions of the most notorious bandit in California, Juan Castro.