Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.

Hoppy, California and Johnny partner up with brother and sister ranch owners, two of several who are having their access to water blocked by a dam owned by a greedy merchant in town, who is intent on driving them out and taking their land for himself.