In 1844 John returns from four years in the newly merged provinces of Canada, thankful to be returning to civilisation. The new steam technology carries him across the ocean, and swiftly back home to Brackley. But not to the comfortable family home he remembers. He arrives to find his mother newly dead and his family in disarray, each of the brothers longing to escape the control of their autocratic father; Edward the compliant eldest brother who yearns to go to the new lands in the USA; Robin forced by his father to be a land surveyor when the only thing that interests him is steam...