A documentary novel portraying industry's conditions at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Sinclair's novel prompted public outrage which led President Theodore Roosevelt to demand an official investigation. This eventually led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug laws.

Gold Rush California's notorious Legislature of a Thousand Drinks launches a secret consortium of frontier barons, triggering the collapse of independent mines throughout Sierra Nevada.James MacLaren, a fugitive from Scotland, embarks on a new life in the California Gold Rush. He is a man always on his guard, leery of the entitled but wary of his own temper. While raising a headstrong daughter and denying his love for a woman he cannot have, he champions...