Synopsis: The Big Bonanza
William Wright heads west in the 1850’s leaving his wife Caroline
behind on the farm.
Arriving in Virginia City, Nevada, at the time of the discovery of the
famous Comstock Lode, he sets up shop as a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise
under the pen name Dan De Quille. Here in this barren-yet-beautiful
wilderness, the miners are risking life and limb to bring riches from
the ground.
Dan fails to make it rich in mining stocks, and so pins his hopes on
a new book. After the murder of his friend Julia, he turns to drink
(and eventually, opium) to relieve his growing sense of loneliness and
despair. His younger colleague Mark Twain succeeds wildly where Dan
cannot, even as Caroline continues to hope for Dan to come home.