Amelia is unhappy about the restrictions placed on girls in 1851 San Francisco, so she disguises herself as a boy in order to join a gang of newsboys, where she gets to work and have fun alongside her rambunctious friends.

Victoria (Tory) Blaisdell longs to live a life as adventurous and independent as that of her heroine, Jane Eyre. When Tory's father loses his job and decides to seek a share of the newly discovered gold in California, Tory stows away on the westbound ship carrying her father and younger brother, Jacob. Though San Francisco is mud-caked, frenzied, and full of wild and dangerous men, Tory quickly finds friends and independence - until her father leaves...