The O'Rions believe they are the masters of their own destiny and at the same time each member of the family has been responsible for their collective fate. They have known much of hardship ever since the matriarch of the family first set foot in Montreal. Mary has fallen into a coma while aboard the SS Scotstavia. Brendan her son, dreams of going to British Columbia. Instead he dies in a conflict not really his own, leaving behind his son Sean to look after their matron. Determined to start a career in commercials, he does not get his big break until he films Grace (an ambitious woman with quadraplegia) and her crew traveling around the world to raise funds for a cure for cancer. While Sean climbs out of poverty and isolation Brienna, his oldest daughter, and the rest of the children seek to escape the family influence to find their proper place in society. But the truth is that Brendan's whole family while talented, has let fame and fortune go right to their heads.