Heart of Gold
EMILY has not ever known life beyond the tiny street that she lives on that is the entirety of her town. Books speak to her of a different life, yet her abusive husband forbids any activity other that attending to his two children. Terrorized by false religious rhetoric, Emily is made fearful to think to go past the threshold of her front door, yet one day she must flee for her life, and stows away on a passing coach. Arriving in a rough prospecting town, the repulsive Sheriff STEPHENS that runs the town is corrupt, and vows to make the unsullied Emily his, against her will. Tired if the corrupt system eating up people, a spiritually wounded Native man called the PAWS interferes, and gives Emily illegally works with his moonshine business. Now on Stephen's bad list, the moonshine business is targeted. Yet Emily discovers a flaw in the legal system, and realizes that she is able to legally stake a claim, work the land, and keep what she makes, even as a woman; as no one in the government ever considered that a woman would think to be a prospector. The Paws and Emily team up to find their mining treasure, yet for Emily the greatest treasure is being able to return for her children when she has found her fortune, independence, and herself.