In the late 1970s, Cooper Stuart has returned to his sprawling historic mountain family ranch near Telluride. His widowed mother is managing the ranch with ever increasing bank loans while the Ajax Ski Company is determined to rule Telluride's future. After a hundred years, the gold and silver mines are playing out - the Ajax Ski Company owner made a fortune in the postwar uranium boom near Telluride. Bear Spirit, a Ute Indian Vietnam helicopter pilot and Indian Water Right's activist throws in with Cooper on the YBarC. Judy rides the range with Cooper on her champion barrel racing horse and Adrianna, descended from centuries of Spanish gold mining witches, also joins to help save the YBarC 's rangeland and water rights from the forces that would destroy one of the Americas' most remote and beautiful places.