Frances "Frankie" Abels, a former spy for the Union Army and sometimes nurse, receives unwelcome news that she must leave Washington, D.C. for a healthier climate. After securing a clerking position with the Secretary of State of Nevada in Carson City, she traverses the continent by rail, steamboat and stagecoach. A dead fellow traveler, the disappearance of Governor Blasd Frances "Frankie" Abels, a former spy for the Union Army and sometimes nurse, receives unwelcome news that she must leave Washington, D.C. for a healthier climate. After securing a clerking position with the Secretary of State of Nevada in Carson City, she traverses the continent by rail, steamboat and stagecoach. A dead fellow traveler, the disappearance of Governor Blasdel and the Washoe Zephyr insure that Frankie's new life is not the peaceful convalescence she envisioned. Frankie first appeared in Misadventures in Mosby's Confederacy and Calamity in Washington.