Set in a 1910 circus, young Charlotte travels from city to city with her acrobat family who perform on the Trapeze. With her training almost complete, she already takes on the daring Blindfolded trick. Despite never having successfully completed the trick, Charlotte is determined to do the trick at the upcoming performance. But worries about that take a back seat when Charlotte learns about the circus potentially going out of business. She's determined to find the truth about whether or not she- and her daring Trapeze act- are the secret to saving the circus. But to do that, she will have to get into the Forbidden Train Car Z.

After a long journey, a traveller and his wife arrive at the Usher mansion. Upon arriving, however, they discover that the mansion's sibling inhabitants, Roderick and Madeline Usher, have been afflicted with a mysterious malady: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become nearly catatonic. That evening, Roderick tells his guests of an old Usher family curse: any time there has been more than one Usher child, all of the siblings have gone insane and died horrible deaths. As the days wear on, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax.

Author Bret Harte relates the story of the discovery of gold in California at Sutter's Mill, and how that discovery changed the history of the west forever.