Once there was a wilderness so vast, no white man had ever crossed it. Then Lewis and Clark became the pathfinders for a nation, opening up a land of limitless possibilities that called with a siren's song to brave men looking for a dream ... the first Holts. In the heart of this majestic land, Clay Holt and his Sioux Wife, Shining Moon, lead a perilous expedition up the Yellowstone River. While Clay and his band confront fierce storms and the plots...

In 1837, a young widow, Claudia Humphries, and a wagon master, Sam Brentwood, discover that it is their destiny to command the first leg of the journey to Independence, Missouri. Traveling under secret orders from President Andrew Jackson, Brentwood's task is to win a race against England and Russia in order to bring the promised land of the Pacific Northwest under the American flag.

Virginia City! Boom town on the wild Nevada frontier! Atop the silver-rich mountains of the Comstock Lode were the desperate dreamers, thousands of men and women lured by the glittering promise of limitless wealth. But as the bountiful mother lode is mined, the nation itself is being torn apart by a burning confrontation that threatens to destroy America for ever.