In the summer of 1897, Fiona MacGillivray and her 11-year-old son, Angus, arrive in Vancouver in time to hear the news — gold discovered in the Klondike! After an encounter with infamous gangster Soapy Smith and his henchman Paul Sheridan, she decides to pursue her ambitions on the other side of the border in Dawson City. As a dying man breathes his last, he passes on to Sheridan a map pointing due north to fabled Gold Mountain, where hills of gold keep the heat from hot springs contained in a valley as warm as California.

Sheridan is determined to become the king of Gold Mountain and to marry Fiona and make her his queen. Fiona wants no part of these mad plans. Sheridan refuses to take no for an answer, and it's up to Corporal Sterling of the North-West Mounted Police, young Angus, and a headstrong assortment of townsfolk to head into the vast wilderness in pursuit.