Four modern families aboard a passenger train hurtle into the night, just as 170 years earlier their forebears made their way in a young nation built on grand promises. Each family follows its own path, but in this rich, Dickensian novel by the author of This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, they find that their destinies are linked, the culmination of five generations of shared history.

"Evison gives the story a sprightly, page-turner feel…. A bighearted, widescreen American tale."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)