Gabe Harrison wanted no part of the Civil War. He took the stationmaster's job for the Pony Express at Friday's Station on the south shore of Lake Tahoe for the winter, planning on using his pay as down payment on a ranch in Wyoming.

Then he was broadsided by a blizzard of a different sort, a blizzard consisting of orphaned children, a newborn baby, a Washoe maiden, a one-arm Paiute boy named Friday, and a band of Union soldiers with a wagonload of gold. When these soldiers start acting peculiar, it is up to Gabe to figure out their scheme and protect his growing "family."

If that mix weren't enough, the Paiute Indians went on the rampage, burning waystations up and down the Pony Express line. And before Gabe could whistle Dixie, he found himself fighting alongside the Johnny Rebs.