Wesley Curnow, a young Cornish miner, arrives in the United States to seek an uncle who is working on the mines in Missouri. Taking passage on a boat from New York, bound for New Orleans, he meets up with a charismatic U.S. marshall who is en route to the western territories to bring law to the area.

DI Charlie Priest is on holiday when he gets a call from his colleagues at Heckley about the opening of a local shopping and conference centre. Amid the paparazzi flash bulbs and preening local officials, someone by-passed security. But worse is to come, as this leads Charlie into a murder investigation.