In Arizona, in 1885, Shefford takes a job on a pack train in order to discover the whereabouts of a secluded gold-filled gorge, "Surprise Valley," where a group of travelers were trapped fifteen years earlier while trying to elude Dyer, an infamous outlaw. The pack train arrives at its destination, a settlement where Dyer and his men keep their "women folk," and Shefford meets a young woman who, unknown to him, is Fay Larkin, one of the Surprise Valley dwellers who has been brought against her will to Dyer's quasi-brothel. Shefford tells her about Surprise Valley and his desire to find and help the people trapped there. Fearing for the safety of the couple who adopted her, Jane Withersteen and Jim Lassiter, Fay tells Shefford that "Fay" is dead and urges him to leave the area. Shefford later saves an Indian girl from the clutches of Willets, one of Dyer's outlaws, and he asks the girl's appreciative brother, Lone Eagle, if he knows about Surprise Valley.