The New York City battle for the Erie Railroad in 1872 is only one of many events within the sweep of this novel. Unhappily married and childless, Farah Belden disobeys her stockbroker husband and attends a parade-the scene of the Boyne's Day Massacre. Traumatized by the bloody deaths, she goes to Minnesota to visit her married sister. There she becomes attracted to Lord Gordon, a Scottish peer buying land to resettle his impoverished tenants. When she returns to her life in New York, Gordon arrives to fight for control of the Erie Railroad against her husband's powerful client, Jay Gould. Falling in love with Gordon, she yearns to bear his child even though she cannot divorce. The novel is based on historical events and real people (the Black Friday crash, the Chicago Fire, the murder of tycoon Jim Fisk, Jay Gould's battle for the Erie Railroad, and the 1874 clash between the United States and Canada). The principal characters-Farah Belden, Lord Gordon, Jay Gould, and Gould's hired thug, Tommy Lynch-each has a story. Each saga weaves a ribbon into this tapestry of the early 1870s, examining life in New York, Minnesota, Canada, and England, from the haughtiness of New York mansions to the squalor of Fort Garry saloons.
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