On the morning of November 23, 1850, a gambler named John Oakhurst walks through Poker Flat, a small mining town in the American West. The town’s “moral atmosphere” has changed, and Oakhurst knows that the town is “after somebody.” He reflects calmly that he’s probably the one the town is after—a suspicion that soon proves correct.
Poker Flat has suffered a major blow to its reputation and sense of stability. It has recently lost an important resident, a large fortune, and two horses, catalyzing a “spasm of virtuous reaction.” In an effort to salvage the town’s reputation and reinstate a sense of normalcy, a group of powerful Poker Flat residents form a secret committee that decides who stays and who goes, whether by hanging (a fate to which two men have already been sentenced) or by exile. Oakhurst is faced with the latter punishment. Several men on the committee have lost money to Oakhurst, and they are irate. In order to reimburse themselves, they call for Oakhurst to be hanged, but the committee members who have managed to win money from Oakhurst suggest that he merely be banished.
On the day of his exile, Oakhurst finds himself in the company of three other “improper persons”: two prostitutes who go by the names Mother Shipton and the Duchess, as well as a drunkard and suspected thief called Uncle Billy. Though his companions cry and curse, Oakhurst is remarkably calm and unruffled as the outcasts are marched out of the settlement and sent towards the mountains.
Although Sandy Bar is the next closest settlement, it’s on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, making it one long, intense travel day away. Soon, the Duchess declares that she will go no further and insists they set up camp. Oakhurst knows that camping is a bad idea—they don’t have food or supplies to sustain their journey. Even though he tries to make this clear, his companions don’t listen and immediately take to drinking. As he doesn’t drink (it clashes with his profession as a gambler, which requires him to always have clear senses and sharp decision-making skills) Oakhurst remains on the fringes, watching the group quietly.
Soon, a young man named Tom “The Innocent” Simson, a resident of Sandy Bar, rides down the trail. He and Oakhurst are well acquainted, as Oakhurst won a large fortune from Tom a few months ago but sympathetically returned it to the young man with a stern warning to never gamble again. Tom is thrilled to see Oakhurst and excitedly introduces his fiancée, Piney Woods, to the group. The pair are headed to Poker Flat to elope. Oakhurst tries to convince the newcomers not to linger, but Tom cheerfully offers to share his rations and mentions that they can camp at a crudely constructed log cabin that he saw down the path. The group takes Tom up on his offer and makes camp.
In the morning, Oakhurst awakens to freshly fallen snow and hurriedly prepares to wake the group so that they can beat the impending storm. However, he quickly realizes that Uncle Billy is missing, and that the group’s mules have disappeared. Oakhurst lies to Piney and Tom that Uncle Billy left to find more food, and the animals accidentally stampeded, though Mother Shipton and the Duchess sense what really happened. Tom is still cheerful as ever, and over the next few days he leads the group in camp songs and storytelling.
Soon, the snowfall accumulates to 20 feet, and the group struggles to find wood to keep up their fires. Mother Shipton begins to fade rapidly, and on the 10th day, she pulls Oakhurst aside and privately tells him that she’s been starving herself, saving her rations so that Piney can live a little longer. She dies quietly, and the group turns somber.
Oakhurst gives Tom a pair of homemade snowshoes, urging him to make it to Poker Flat, though his chances of saving Piney are slim. Although Oakhurst says he’ll accompany Tom only as far as the canyon, he doesn’t return to camp. The Duchess and Piney cling to one another for warmth, but eventually fall asleep and die of exposure. Days later, “pitying fingers” dust the snow off of their faces. In death, it’s impossible to tell the women apart, as they both carry a look of “equal peace.” Even the residents of Poker Flat recognize this, so they leave the women locked in a tender embrace.
Deeper into the woods, the rescuers stumble upon Oakhurst’s body. Pinned to a tree with a knife is a playing card, the deuce of clubs, upon which Oakhurst has scribbled his epitaph, claiming to have “struck a streak of bad luck.” Oakhurst, who shot himself in the heart, appears just as stoic in death as he did in life. He is, the narrator affirms, “at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat.”
