After an outlaw hits him over the head, Jason wakes up and returns to town, and discovers that a drifter has managed to kill the outlaw and is taking credit for Jason's "death".

When Jimmy Whitlaw's father dies of fever, the young boy becomes the center of a fight for water rights that his father owned.

After a survey of Alaska, Jason returns to Seattle with information for William Seward that will help him convince the U.S. government to buy the northern land. But some men intend for that information to stay buried.