The novel begins with William Darrell explaining to his wife what makes him a settler and not a squatter, in his eyes, as an American citizen. From there Darrell heads to Southern California to acquire lands to "settle", build a homestead, and bring his family down south with him. His wife makes him promise not to settle on lands belonging to others and that if he does, pay the rightful owner of that land. Don Mariano Alamar was the man on whose land Mr. Darrell had squatted, along with several other American settlers. About this time people were investing heavily in city blocks expecting a huge payoff when the Texas Pacific Railroad was punched through to San Diego. Mr. Darrell's son Clarence had fallen for Don Alamar's daughter, Mercedes, which began the love story in the novel. Mercita's mother was objectional to this since Clarence was of a squatters family, so she sent Mercedes to New York to avoid Clarence. One problem- Clarence sought the Don's permission to follow her to New York, in which he did. Corruption in the government was a revolving door regarding Don Alamar's land title. The Attorney General had dismissed the squatters appeal on Alamar's land, only to have a subordinate attorney overturn the appeal so that it would remain in litigation longer. That soon came to an end as the Don's title was proven valid by the Attorney General again. The squatters didn't move off of the Alamar land with the news that the title was valid, but did step up their killing of the Don's cattle. The other squatters had influenced Mr. Darrell to confront Don Mariano which led to a sickening rift between not only the Don and Darrell, but between Darrell and Clarence, as well as tearing Mercedes and Clarence apart. Clarence then left and traveled around the US, Mexico, South America, and Europe. The failure of the Texas Pacific Railroad to come to San Diego broke Don Mariano...