The gold fields made him a promise. But what if the gold ran out? David Bollin, born of missionary parents in Hawaii, leaves his island home to take up a new life as a gentleman in Boston. Having rejected his father's faith, David had set out to make his own fortune and prove himself a man. But before he can realize his dream, he is plunged into an unexpected adventure—first as a hand on a whaling ship, and then as a prospector in the California gold fields. The lure of gold and the dream of a life of ease entice him onward, drawing him into a downward spiral of deceit and trapping him in a web of murder, power and greed. The glamorous future turns into despair as he becomes the target of unscrupulous enemies. Without a defense, what are his chances? Could a father's broken heart span the ocean that separated them?