Sievert Olafson wants to give up a sure thing-- farming the rich soil of Minnesota-- to go to college. His father forbids it, his brothers ridicule him, and his sweetheart refuses to join him. So what does a seventeen-year-old first generation American do? Sievert leaves home for the goldfields of the Arizona Territory. What he finds is a world of contrasts; a mentor who is his father's diametric opposite, a young woman who takes him to new emotional heights, and depths, a "do it to them before they do it to you" society that is anything but a sure thing. His success is stolen, his honesty betrayed, and with the pull of a trigger, his views of right and wrong are altered forever. But through his wild ride of victories and defeats, a dormant bulb flowers. It guides him to happiness, and a second chance at his dream.