After being laid off from his corporate job, James Calder and his best friend pan for gold in the California mountains. They meet a series of colorful characters, lose everything, and then stumble upon the greatest gold find of the millennium.

An honest man, James builds an empire based on decency and fair play, until murder shatters his world. One by one, people around him are slaughtered. Ominous warnings tell him that he is next. But who is the murderer? And what is the motive? Greed? Envy? Retribution? A serial killer?