Watching a saloon fight, hearing a ghost in the hallway, dating a gambler...Kathleen could never have imagined such experiences during her homeless days living on the streets of New York. An orphan train brings her West where a chance encounter at a train stop lands her a job in the silver-mining town of Calico, California. Her job entails cleaning in a "boarding house" where the girls befriend her, and the madam protects her. Afternoons and evenings she is free to roam around town where she meets colorful characters typical of the Old West—some pleasant, some not—witnesses mine workers attacking the Chinese, and helps put out a fire threatening to burn down the town. Every day is an adventure for Kathleen in this wild west town of the 1880s.