Gold fever has swept across California's Barbary Coast, and fires of passion, lawlessness, and violence burn in its wake. Nothing is forbidden and everything is for sale. Lives are bartered for mounds of sparkling dust. John Clinton Ryan has come to San Francisco to rescue the beautiful Apolonia Vega. She was abducted from her father's ranch by a gang of gold-hungry sailors, she's bound for foreign shores, and a fate worse than death. From the waterfront's bleak back alleys to Chinatown's infamous flesh markets, Clint's out to extract a measure of honor and justice in a city where the only law is that of hot lead...and cold blood.