Plot summary

In the late nineteenth century, the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to the Pacific Ocean is a matter of national importance, the westernmost province, British Columbia, threatening succession from the Dominion of Canada otherwise in its isolation from the rest of the union. The most obvious problem is finding a suitable route through the rugged mountainous areas. CPR's General Manager Cornelius Van Horne has hired Tom Andrews as the surveyor to find that appropriate routing, which he is able to do. The announcement of the route and the actual construction only initiate other problems as some do not want to see the railroad constructed. Fur trader Dirk Rourke has convinced many trappers and indigenous peoples that the railroad would bring more people into the region placing pressure on the trapping trade, when in reality Dirk is afraid of what it would do to his own inflated livelihood in the trappers being able to bypass him, the middleman. Tom tries to convince them as much by telling them that he himself plans to settle in the area - he long having courted Cecille Gautier who lives with her family west of Calgary - and would do nothing to ruin his own living environment. The violence that ensues as Dirk and those behind him, who include Cecille's father, do whatever they feel they need, including kill, to stop construction does not sit well with the CPR's field doctor, Edith Cabot, who holds true to the oath to her profession to uphold all life. That belief places her in a conundrum as despite blaming Tom for much of that violence in he believing he needs to quash any violent uprising with an appropriate amount of opposing force, she and Tom start to fall for each other.—Huggo