Heading into the Wild West seems an adventure to fifteen-year-old Justin Bodean, until the bullets and arrows begin to fly. Life or death often hangs by a ragged thread, as he soon comes to realize, and he must find if he has the grit to survive and the courage to think of others. The lure of a treasure of Civil War gold drives him, and he has a map. But he's not alone in wanting the hidden stash. Others, some who seem to be friends and some who are clearly not, want the same thing. Out here, where fortunes can be grabbed by the strongest and quickest, he has a lot to learn. And he's going to have to learn fast if he wants to be sixteen.