The year is 1893, and Pearl Ryan, a young woman with a checkered past,
arrives in Ruby City, a silver mining town full of scoundrels--one to
which no respectable woman would ever travel. Pearl sets up shop as the
town laundress, but is clearly no ordinary charwoman: She is courted by
many and the local doctor often solicits her assistance as his nurse.
Pearl's dream is to attend medical school--not a small feat for a woman
alone in the Wild West--and hopes that the proceeds from her newly
inherited mining claim
will pay for her education.
Meanwhile, laundry is her bread and butter. As laundress, however, Pearl
is privy to many secrets she'd rather not know. As a student of the
healing arts, she recognizes the symptoms of poisoning when she sees
them. And as a woman with a past she'd rather keep hidden, she must
solve the murders plaguing Ruby City before US marshals arrive.