President Grant gives orders to agents James West and Artemus Gordon to deliver prisoner Rimsky to Vladivostok, Russia, in a prisoner exchange for American vice-consul Millard Boyer. When Rimsky dies in an escape attempt, Gordon assumes his identity. The agents are drugged en route and when they come to, are led to believe they're in Russia. West is imprisoned and forced to reveal Rimsky's whereabouts. His captors tie him to a stake while saber-swinging Cossacks ride straight for him. Still in disguise, Gordon meets Rimsky's contact Sazanov, in an effort to uncover the Russians' racket.

West and Gordon escort President Grant to San Fransisco to dedicate a statue of the late Colonel Wayne Gibson in Gibsonville. West rides ahead to check out the town and finds that it is plagued by a series of broken-neck murders and arguments over lost gold. A further investigation yields the fact that the Colonel is not as dead as was previously thought and that his statue is far from ordinary.

Jim meets with crime czar Sabatini, who asks him to travel to Calliope, MO to protect a lady and give a man called Swanson a key. Accompanied by government chemist Ned Brown, Jim travels to Calliope (where an Army finance officer died after stealing half a mil). Swanson is killed and the lady turns out to be Sabatini's ward blind Sylvia. It turns out Sabatini was the officer and Sylvia was the daughter of Boorman, Sabatini's partner in the robbery. Dodging Boorman, Jim and Ned find Sabatini's deed leaving all of his property to Sylvia.