Silver and Shells for General Kearny opens in Santa Fe in the early days of the Mexican War. The Army of the West under General Kearny has begun its military invasion of New Mexico. The despotic New Mexican governor Manuel Armijo whose residence is the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe has accepted a bribe of $30 000 in silver to abdicate and leave the province. The problem is the delivery of the bribe. Satan s Keyhole is set outside Placerville in the days of the California Gold Rush. Glen Anders an engineer has come to California searching for Jamaica Anders the woman who has ruined his life. Down on his luck but within sight of Jamaica he is engaged to take over a seemingly impossible engineering job building a bridge across Satan s Keyhole as part of a hydraulic project to bring water to the many mines in the area that need it or will face ruin.