Great Day in the Morning

1861. Tensions are rising between Northerners and Southerners throughout the United States, although in largely "Yankee" Denver, there is day-to-day harmony between people just interacting with each other in their wants and needs. That feeling does not apply to all the people in town in some seeing "North" or "South" more than they see the actual person. The situation fundamentally changes with the onset of the war. This story largely focuses on four people. The first is Owen Pentecost, a sharpshooter and North Carolinian, and thus Southerner, who came to Denver to make a fortune in gold mining, but whose economic fortune literally changed with the "chance" of the cards. The second is Northerner Ann Merry Alaine who came to Denver to open a dress shop. The third is long time Denver resident Boston Grant, a barmaid. The issue with Ann Merry and Boston is that they are both in love with Owen in their own way, Ann Merry whose feeling is more conditional, whereas Boston's is more unconditional. Ann Merry's conditional feelings about Owen are largely related to the fourth, young Gary Lawford, who came to Denver in search of his miner father only to find that he had been killed. The issue is that Owen has taken Gary under his wing, Gary who in turn has begun to idolize Owen, without knowing what only Owen and Ann Merry know: that Owen killed Gary's father in a shootout.