In 1875 a storm driven sailing schooner wrecks on a reef off Salta Verde Beach on Catalina Island. The schooner was carrying a gold shipment stolen from the San Francisco Mint. The only survivor of the wreck is the helmsman, Sam Miller.
In 2022 while camping on the same beach with his family, Papa is challenged by his grandchildren to tell a story. The story he tells is of Salta Verde Sam's Gold, and how the gold was never found, although many searched for it over the years. In telling the story Papa also relates how he had camped on the same beach as a teenager, and confronted a different mystery, one that almost cost him his life, but left him with valuable clues about Sam and his treasure.
Wending over almost one hundred and fifty years, the tale of Sam's Gold touches on a wide swath of Catalina history, including native Americans, Chinese pirates, smugglers, sheep ranchers, a tourist hotel, ghosts and the mystery of Sam himself. This is the story of how Papa and the grandkids embark on a fact-finding journey across the years in a relentless search to find Salta Verde Sam's Gold.