The ramshackle River Queen Hotel is home to vagabonds, gamblers, and heathens-and now, to new widow Rose Peterson. The rundown Gold Rush establishment is the only thing her late husband, Emmet, left her. Despite its raucous saloon and ladies of the evening, Rose can see the hotel's potential. Her late husband's family claim that sheltered Rose isn't capable of running the Sacramento inn herself. But she is determined to make a new life for herself...