In the Sparkling Mountains, someone is killing miners and stealing their gold. All clues point to the Malecite Indians, led by Komotai, a violent and conceited chief. Zagor decides to find out what drove the Indians to such greed...
To help Bat and Bing Batterton in their investigation, Zagor and Chico board the ship Blue Queen, where a mysterious apparition appears. But, apart from the mysterious specter, the ship hides some other dark secrets...
The Hidatsa tribe chooses a new chief between two rivals. According to an old tribal custom, rivals compete in a game with seven arrows, but one of them is wounded, so Zagor takes his place.
Black Deer fraudulently wants to become the chief of the Salishes so that he can trade dubious goods with the whites with impunity, but the Axe Ghost manages to throw him out of the village with all his supporters...
In search of Nat Murdo and Anya, Zagor, Chico and Akutan find themselves in Alaska in the middle of a small war between Russian colonists and the native Tlingit tribe.