The civil war is still raging in the south, but far sighted men are working to bring about an East/West link by means of building the Central Pacific Railroad, hoping to bring prosperity to the land for when peace is restored. Kiernan who was first attracted to the West by the gold rush, is now working on what he knows best, railroad construction, but it is a hard life with poor return and he and Victoria live in relative poverty, unknown to her parents.....The three of them will travel further West with a survey team that Brenton is accompanying to photograph the landscape on the way. For protection the expedition takes along a group of soldiers, lead by a Captain O?Brian, who Jordana has cause to remember.

At the end of Book One, we left Jordana and her brother Brenton settling into a little house in Omaha with their brother-in law’s sister Caitlan. Caitlan has travelled from Ireland to escape the situation there and is planning to join her brother Kiernan and his wife Victoria in the West. Jordana has got herself a job in a local bank, Brenton is trying to make some money from his photography, and Caitlan who is fiercely independent has taken a job as a housekeeper for an affluent family in the town as well as keeping house for the brother and sister. The civil war is still raging in the south, but far sighted men are working to bring about an East/West link by means of building the Central Pacific Railroad, hoping to bring prosperity to the land for when peace is restored. Kiernan who was first attracted to the West by the gold rush, is now working on what he knows best, railroad construction, but it is a hard life with poor return and he and Victoria live in relative poverty, unknown to her parents. Her mother and father have already had a successful financial interest in railroad building, but they have been on a visit to Europe with the two youngest siblings and know not of the situations their older children have got themselves into. After Jordana has received unwelcome advances from the son of her employer at the bank, Brenton at last agrees that the three of them will travel further West with a survey team that Brenton is accompanying to photograph the landscape on the way. For protection the expedition takes along a group of soldiers, lead by a Captain O’Brian, who Jordana has cause to remember So much more is woven into this story and it is not finished yet, despite the satisfying climax to this book.