They came by river and by wagon train, braving the endless distances of the Great Plains and the icy passes of the Sierra Nevada. They were men like Linus Rawlings, a restless survivor of Indian country who d headed east to see the ocean but left his heart and his home in the West. They were women like Lilith Prescott, a smart, spirited beauty who fled her family and fell for a gambling man in the midst of a frontier gold boom. These pioneering men and women sowed the seeds of a nation with their courage and with their blood. Here is the story of how their paths would meet amid the epic struggle against fierce enemies and nature s cruelty, to win for all time the rich and untamed West."