July 4, 1879, a group of miners unearth vast amounts of gold in a sprawling valley of Colorado. Word spread. The camp they established began to attract settlers like ants to spilt ice cream, and within five years time a bustling town sprung to life, rightly named, Independence.
    One-legged Irish immigrant Seamus, a survivor of the famine and determined to reach the west coast, tries to avoid trouble while operating the town barbershop. However, trouble does have a knack of finding him, especially with the divergence of his views on the Native American Ute Tribe compared to those of most townsfolk. While others see the tribe as an obstacle to manifest destiny and call for their extermination, Seamus understands and champions the tribe’s benevolent ways.
    The town becomes emboldened in their beliefs after seedy lawman Sheriff Johnson Z. Howard apprehends the alleged culprit in a string of violent stagecoach robberies, Ute War Chief Black Hawk. As tensions boil over, Seamus finds himself in the town’s crosshairs, but retains a sliver of hope when the clue to the truth winds up at the feet of his friend Peter Teet, the shortest man in human history.