"Heart of Gold" is the 13th episode of the science fiction television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon. It is the last of three episodes that were not broadcast in the original 2002 Fox run.

A Companion-trained friend of Inara's who runs a brothel calls for help from Serenity when a local bigwig reveals his intentions to take his baby from the woman he impregnated.

At a brothel in the middle of a barren land, a powerful man named Ranse Burgess (Fredric Lehne), accompanied by thugs, approaches the madam, Nandi (played by Melinda Clarke), demanding to see a woman named Petaline (Tracy Leah Ryan). When Nandi denies the presence of Petaline, Burgess' thugs drag out Petaline, who is visibly several months pregnant, before Burgess, who extracts a DNA sample. He tells her he will return for his child if his test on the DNA proves the child to be his, threatening to cut it out of her if need be.

Aboard the space vessel Serenity, Companion Inara Serra receives a distress call from Nandi, who it is revealed is a good friend of hers. After Nandi requests Inara's help, Inara goes to Captain Malcolm Reynolds. She explains that Nandi and the prostitutes who work in Nandi's brothel are not Companions, and are not protected by the Guild. After she relates their plight, Reynolds agrees to assist Nandi, but declines Inara's offer of payment for the deed. After Serenity lands near Nandi's ranch, Jayne Cobb takes advantage of the hospitality of the women there, while Shepherd Derrial Book administers to some women who wish him to pray with them, and Dr. Simon Tam goes to examine Petaline, who will give birth soon. Reynolds gets to know Nandi, who explains the poverty that Burgess enforces on the locals.

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