The year is 1868. A young Native American boy, a Wintu, leaves the reservation in the Mendocino County of California to search for his father, a white man, who had been taken in by the tribe after an attack by a bear. His journey, and that of his sister, a companion from another tribe, and a young Chinese "Daughter of Joy," follow the Iron Trail of the First Transcontinental Railroad as it is completed, and as its Last Spike is driven into the hearts...