The Desperate Mission plot
"They burned his house ... Raped his wife ... Ravaged his land ..."
The 19th century figure Joaquin Murietta is a former wealthy and respected landowner. Yet he has lost his lands, his wife and everything he loved and held dear to him. Embittered and questioning his past belief in God, he joins a group of men hired to protect and guide a rich man's wife in the bandit-infested area of San Francisco. Murietta discovers that the convoy is also carrying a treasure of great religious value. He considers himself challenged to decide what to believe and what to do in the face of threats to himself, the convoy and the people of Southern California.