The four characters get together and leave Poker Flat, heading to the nearby town of Sandy Bar, only a day's journey away but accessible only via a treacherous mountain pass in the Sierra Mountains range. They are instructed not to come back, on pain of death. The group consists of Duchess, a saloon girl, Mother Shipton, a madam, Uncle Billy, a local drunk and thief, and John Oakhurst, a poker player, who won a lot of money from the people sitting on the secret committee. One November morning, the stoic John Oakhurst, an avid poker player and the story's protagonist, notices a 'Sabbath lull' in the air on Poker Flat's main street and suspects the town is onto yet another round of exiling. This committee decides who will be killed and who expatriated. Consequently a secret committee is elected. They have lost a lot of money, and worry that people's morals are sinking. Certain inhabitants of Poker Flat feel that the community is going downhill. The story takes place in Poker Flat, a small California gold mining community.
