Daniel Knott lives quietly as a bookkeeper for Amos Burch, the leading citizen of Paradise, Colorado. Burch is famed for his generosity and civic virtue. But one day, Knott finds himself witnessing something that jeopardizes his employer's reputation. Soon Knott is in grave danger. He can lie in court, and continue to live comfortably, or he can tell the truth, and find himself in prison, without a job, his reputation ruined, and his family destitute. It is the hardest choice the young bookkeeper ever had to make. What will he do?