Sons are forced from the moment they first suckle on their mother's breast to compete with their fathers for the same ground, but fathers have an advantage. The voice of a father creeps into his son from an early age like the voice of God that spread across the water. Even sons who have never met their fathers can be infected through the blood that gives them life. They may take on the manners of their father without knowing it. Filicide can be a relative phenomenon; a son's spirit slowly crushed below the weight of his father's voice. The San Diego of 1872 desperately needs a railroad, but General Manuel Marquez de Leon wants to use the tracks for his own purposes while the Luiseno Indians know the train will destroy them. Brendan Gould navigates between these two powerful forces when he struggles to build the Texas and Pacific Railroad. If it wasn't for his father, the journey might not be dangerous. Brendan stands in his father's way. Raised during the hell of the Civil War, Brendan uses all his skills to rebuild the country. The Union Pacific Railroad spanned the continent a few years before, bringing prosperity to the northern states. A railroad from Texas to San Diego will bring the same freedom of movement to the shattered South, while linking San Diego to markets in the east. Brendan knows how to finance the project in order to fulfill his dream. Brendan's father, Herman Gould, has bigger plans for the railroad; he sees the Texas and Pacific as a golden pipeline bringing all the wealth of California to him. His megalomania doesn't include his son, except as a possible target. He sends Brendan through a gauntlet stretching from the mansions of Nob Hill in San Francisco to the slums of Five Corners, Manhattan. In San Diego, Brendan finds tough-minded dreamers, longing to turn the desert into paradise. Many will pay the ultimate price to accomplish a goal, which only their great-grandchildren will enjoy. Brendan Gould feels at home among these dr