A vandalized burial in an abandoned pioneer cemetery brings 12-year-old
Peggy Henderson and her elderly archaeologist friend Eddy to Golden,
British Columbia, to excavate. The town dates back to the 1880s when
most of the citizens were tough and rowdy miners and railway workers who
rarely died of old age. Since the wooden burial markers disintegrated
long ago, Peggy and Eddy have no way of knowing the dead mans identity.
But when Eddy discovers the vertebrae at the base of the skull are
crushed, a sure sign the cause of death was hanging, they have their
first clue.
Peggy's tendency to make quick judgments about others leads her to the
conclusion that only bad people are hanged, so the man in the burial
must have gotten what he deserved. Hoping to learn more about him that
proves her beliefs, she is soon digging through dusty old newspapers at
the small-town museum. It's there that Peggy learns that sometimes good
people do bad things.