It is 1896 and nineteen-year-old Pearl Owens wants adventure just like her idols Anna Leonowens and Annie "Londonderry" Choen Kopchovsky. In the 1860s Anna Leonowens taught the wives, concubines, and children of the King of Siam while during the years 1894-1895, Annie "Londonderry" Choen Kopchovsky became the first woman to travel around the world on a bicycle. She was testing a woman's ability to look after herself. To fulfill her dream Pearl is on her way to the Yukon with her cousin, Emma, to write articles and do illustrations about the woman and men who are looking for gold in the north.Sam Owens, Pearl's cousin and Emma's brother, is in the Yukon searching for gold with two friends, Gordon and Donald. After five years of barely making a living at gold panning, Gordon and Donald have decided their quest is futile and it is time to return home. But Sam wants to stay a while longer. Then they hear word of a new gold find on Rabbit Creek. After a discussion they decide to make it their last attempt at striking it rich.When the two women and three men meet in the town of Fortymile, sparks fly between two of them.