The quiet, skilled cook Otis "Cookie" Figowitz has traveled west into Oregon with a group of aggressive fur trappers. While living in the territory, Cookie develops a frienship with the Chinese immigrant King-Lu, who's also come to Oregon to seek his fortune. Soon the two collaborate on a successful business of selling baked goods in their frontier outpost--but Cookie and Lu's business plan is dependent on stealing milk from the first cow imported into the territories, a nerve-wracking venture that eventually puts them at deadly odds with the cow's wealthy and politically connected owner.