Wedding at Poker Flat was inspired by Bret Harte’s short story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, first published in 1869. In Harte’s story, four members of Poker Flat society—a gambler, a prostitute, a madam, and a drunk—are banned from the western settlement when a sudden urge to be virtuous overtakes the citizens. On their way to the next settlement, the outcasts stop to rest at the base of the high mountains they will need to cross, but as it’s November, it is quite cold. An innocent couple, a young man and his fiancée (a tavern waitress), descends from the mountain tops and rests with them. The young man idolizes the poker player and tells him they are going to Poker Flat to marry. The outcasts recognize the goodness of the two young people and adjust their behavior so as not to taint them. As the odd group converse, a blizzard buries them in snow. In the end, none, outcast nor innocent, survive.
What if the poker player was a woman and the young man a full-grown cowboy and they fell in love and decided to get married? Can the poker player truly leave behind her humble beginnings? Can the cowboy truly love such an unconventional woman? And will their band of outcasts help or hurt? It all depends on how strong love is.