Marysville's Chinatown was once one of the most important Chinatowns in America. The early Chinese settlers called Marysville Sanfow, or "the third city," meaning the third city by river to the goldfields. Two of the first four Chinese American judges in California were from Marysville as was the first Chinese American elected to the San Francisco Board of Education. The Marysville Chinatown was among the first Chinatowns built in California's Gold Country and is the only one to survive to this day. Because of this, it is possible to view the full panorama of Chinese-American history through the viewpoint of this one Chinatown.

Sean was a skinny 12-year-old who grew up "farm tough" living on C Street in Yuba City, California, on the Feather River, which defined the town. He viewed life as an adventure and played it like a competitive game. Ryan was from a privileged family where he wanted for nothing and spent the summer with his protective grandparents. The two boys, from different worlds, meet by chance. Events during the summer of 1955 on the farms, and ultimately on the river, especially their encounters with the serial killer Juan Corona, welded the two of them together as lifelong friends. Together with other members of the C Street gang, the adversities they encountered that summer molded each boy into stronger and better men.