This is a saga of three generations of a Sicilian family. Vittorio Brunelli is the foreman on an olive estate. After the owner's son rapes his daughter, he uproots his family to prevent further tragedy from retributions. They settle in a lumber town by Mt. Shasta in Northern California. The story weaves historical events into the lives of the Brunellis, e.g. traveling in steerage to America, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Bank of Italy, Spanish Flu, Chinese immigrants and bootlegging during Prohibition.