Eleven-year-old Ruby is in a pickle. After years of traveling the mountains and hills of Colorado with her Pa and their donkey, Maude, Pa decides to settle down in the booming gold-mining town of Cripple Creek.
Worse than that, Pa decides it's time for Ruby to learn something about being a lady. Vinegar and baking soda don't mix. Ruby faces the prospects of having to wear a corset, learning the art of elocution, and the possibility of having the school headmistress for a mother.
Events lead Ruby into the midst of the 1896 Cripple Creek fire and culminate with the kidnapping and rescue of Maude from the clutches of a local scoundrel.