On November 3, 1870, as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling into San Francisco Bay, a woman drew a pistol and aimed it at a man, firing a single bullet into his chest. "I did it and I don't deny it," she said when arrested. "He ruined both myself and my daughter." The trial made headlines and shone a spotlight on the role of women and the range of acceptable expressions of gender. Krist recounts this story in a rollicking narrative that probes what it all meant for a city eager for the world stage.