As chapter one begins, Rasmussen takes us back to June 1865 when the Gold Rush was in full swing, as Captain Phillip La Mar, in the wheelhouse of his stern-wheel riverboat, Jupiter, enters the day's events in the logbook. His major concern is that three crewmen have cholera—the deadly scourge of the riverboats that ply the Missouri River, carrying freight and passengers destined for Fort Benton (Montana) and the goldfields beyond.