In the 1870s when Able Holliston arrives in the Santa Ynez Valley just over the mountains behind Santa Barbara, California is still in s time of uneasy transition between the Mexican Land grant system that had been in use until California became a state in 1850 and the new, more defined system of ranch land ownership that eventually came to replace it. Stepping down from the stagecoach, Able finds himself in the middle of a volatile situation in which he soon becomes a major figure.