John Wynne, the orphaned son of an English Lord, and Danny Hanley, a Irish peasant are bound together on a journey through life which begins during the Irish Potato famine in 1847, travels across the turbulent Atlantic Ocean, the rough streets of New York, across the Oregon Trail in a wagon train, on to California during the Gold Rush, crossing the new state of Oregon to end in Washington Territory during the building of Fort Colville. Part of the current city of Colville sits on land homesteaded by John Wynne, a long forgotten character of the towns past. Following the outline of John Wynne's life, C. L. Neely has captured glimpses of America's history, that take the reader on an unforgettable journey not uncommon to the Irish immigrants who fled starvation and began a new life in a country that was just beginning to stretch out its wings.