It is spring, 1963. Only six months earlier the world breathed a sigh of relief at the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet Soviet and United States agents are already positioned for a confrontation in northwestern Mexico. Jack Stark and beautiful Maria Salizar, heir to the Salizar dynasty, are thrown into each others arms during a wildly turbulent plane ride to Mazatlan. What follows is a classic tale of passion, intrigue, and mortal danger played out in the shadow of the historic Avino, the great mountain of silver mined by the Spanish for more than 300 years.