Sutter's Gold plot
"Men lived for it! Men killed for it!"
In 1833, the Swiss Johan Sutter is wrongly accused of murder. He then leaves his family in Switzerland and leaves for America. After wandering, Sutter eventually ends up in California. Against all odds, Sutter sets up an empire there with a lot of land, only to watch it disintegrate again in 1848 when gold is found at his factory. In fact, prospectors, speculators and illegal traders in gold-mining claims are stripping Sutter of his hard-earned wealth and it seems that this gold rush will force him into retirement, with a small pension payment from the government in prospect…