As waves of 49ers descend on California, shopkeeper Sam Brannan makes a move that will forever change the gold rush. He purchases every pan, pickaxe and shovel on the west coast and begins selling them to gold hungry miners at massively inflated prices—making him the first millionaire in the West, with influence to match. When Boston Company finally arrives in California, they find that the gold fields are already packed and the easy pickings are gone. They have no choice but to play into Sam Brannan’s game. Sam Brannan expands his empire, ruthlessly devising new and more ingenious ways to take gold from miners, as he buys up stakes in every business in San Francisco—from hotels, to gambling halls, to brothels. But right when it looks as though Brannan can’t make a bad move, the entire Gold Rush goes up in flames.