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Latigo Smith, a gambler and con artist, travels by train through frontier Colorado with the wealthy Goldie. Goldie yearns to marry him, a fate he wants to dodge, so he quietly tips the train’s headwaiter to help him disembark without drawing attention from her. He hops off at Purgatory, a rough mining town where danger and opportunity sit side by side.

In this unsettled town, two mining companies—led by the bitter rivals Taylor Barton and Colonel Ames—are locked in a race to locate a buried mother lode, with periodic dynamite blasts rattling the streets and shaking foundations. Latigo visits the town doctor, Doc Schultz, to confess an embarrassing problem: a large tattoo of Goldie carved on his chest. His greatest weakness remains his compulsive romance with luck and money, a roulette addiction that soon leaves him penniless.

Seeking companionship and escape, Latigo woos Miss Jenny, the sharp-witted saloon keeper, while his schemes take a turn when he’s mistaken for the infamous gunslinger Swifty Morgan. Seizing the moment, Latigo persuades the amiable ne’er-do-well Jug May to impersonate Swifty, hoping to stir up the town’s fortune in one bold bluff. The plan quickly broadens when Latigo catches the eye of Patience Barton, the hot-tempered daughter of Taylor, who longs to escape frontier life and attend “Miss Hunter’s College on the Hudson River” in New York City.

As tensions flare, Ames dispatches a telegram to the real Swifty Morgan, triggering a dramatic showdown. Swifty arrives in town and immediately challenges Jug to a gunfight, but Latigo—now atop a donkey loaded with dynamite crates—has his own trick ready. The confrontation spirals into chaos when the donkey bolts into the Bartons’ saloon; a massive explosion rips through the building, unexpectedly uncovering the mother lode and, in the blast, removing Latigo’s tattoo while leaving him intact.

With the town’s fortunes turned, Latigo experiences a strange, hard-won victory at the roulette wheel, betting $10,000 of the Bartons’ money on his lucky number, 23, and winning big as the train’s wheels roll toward the future. As Jug narrates the outcomes from the train to Denver, Patience’s grand plan doesn’t come to pass, but her seven sisters do find their way; Taylor’s life gets a new direction as he settles and marries Abigail; the Colonel’s grip on power slips away; and Swifty Morgan continues to chase a rough-and-tumble legend, while Jug himself leaves the frontier for new fame in Italian Westerns.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:15