Exiled to the fur-traders' rendezvous in the Shining Mountains, Jackson Broussard, heir to an empire, is headed home to St. Louis, to solve his brother's murder, a crime in which he's been implicated. It's his last night in the high country, and he has no intention of participating in the auction that evening... until a dark-haired beauty in cast-off clothing is dragged onto the dais and Jackson suffers an unaccustomed attack of conscience-a circumstance...