Based in part on real journals, the novel traces an epic overland journey in 1862 by train, steamboat, wagon, river raft, and horseback to the thriving gold fields of Barkerville in British Columbia's Cariboo region. Packed with exciting incident, the tale is told by the wryly reflective Hitty who comes of age amid a memorable gallery of rogues and dreamers and against the magnificent landscape and lurking perils of mid-nineteenth century North America...