The book is a western about an Irish immigrant who is orphaned at an early age. The backstory is that his mother died on the journey west and his father was killed after establishing a ranch in northern New Mexico. The boy (Chance Reilly) is sent back east to be raised by an aunt and uncle in New York City in the 1860's.The story picks up with Chance returning to Cimarron, New Mexico at age 28. He finds temporary work at a saloon, then more permanent employment at a ranch owned by his former neighbors. After settling down a little at the ranch, where he begins to strike up a romance with the rancher's daughter, he is forced into a confrontation with one of the brothers who had killed his father fifteen years earlier. After killing the brother in a gunfight, he is required to leave town by the sheriff.Chance drifts north to southern Colorado to try his hand at gold mining in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

After having some luck with the mining, he receives a letter from the rancher's daughter (Kate) telling him that the remaining two brothers are trying to take the ranch. She asks for his help.Returning to Cimarron, Chance deals the two brothers, avenging his father's death. There is a "happily ever after" ending with Chance and Kate.The book includes a little backstory about Tammany Hall politics under Boss Tweed in 1860's New York, as well as 1880's Denver and the northern New Mexico area.