With her photographer and her persnickety chaperone, journalist Jemima "Jemmy" McBustle travels to Sedalia, Missouri, to cover Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. Disaster stalks the mammoth show. Bill's wife narrowly escapes a bullet. A bullet grazes Annie Oakley's horse and a performer riding next to her. Annie's husband Frank Butler grows frantic in his quest to find the source of danger. He suspects Annie's sharpshooting rivals Pawnee Bill, Colonel Bogardus and Lillian Smith. Jemmy jumps in with a daring plan to ferret out the culprits. The search takes Jemmy far afield—from the Pettis County Sheriff's Office to seedy ragtime saloons to the greatest show on earth. All roads lead to an explosive ending in Sedalia for the Wild West's actual farthest east performance ending the 1898 season on Friday, September 23, 1898.