Andrew Jackson Hayes, immediately dubbed 'Professor Hayes', is hired to serve as San Juan, New Mexico's first male teacher. In short order he upsets the community's most stodgy matrons when he marries Rachel - a woman recently arrived on a marriage train - demonstrates his pistol skills, brawls and frequents the saloon. Fired, Hayes and Rachel move to a high valley owned by the professor. They and some of their nearest neighbours whom they befriend, come under a series of attacks by unknown aggressors, attacks they suspect are related to gold on their land. Can Hayes and his allies survive intermittent skirmishes with Apache warriors, as well the multiple attacks from aggressors whose identities remain a mystery...?