In this tale, people scattered throughout the world are woven together in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Forty years after Napoleon's defeat, the development of modern warfare on the Crimean Peninsula sends reverberations across the globe, alerting all of the growth in technology, the precursor of the US Civil War in weapons and tactics, as well as the needs of multitudes of dispossessed and underrepresented. The shrinking planet is growing crowded. The bumping into one another becomes increasingly violent. Women and men stand to be counted, molded of numerous talents and abilities,...