Post-Civil War America. With the nation reunited once again, and its assets no longer bogged down by open conflict, the great expansion westward begins. Railroad tycoons connect the coasts, giving Americans a mobility unlike any in history. Pioneers, renegades, scientists, religious, businessmen, emancipated slaves, soldiers, outlaws, politicians, prospectors, inventors, all flock toward the Pacific. Along the way, new economies are forged; industry is founded; cultures flourish and die. The United States sees an unprecedented growth in its financial, militaristic, social, and international influence. By 1880, the nation's population had increased by more than sixty percent since the pre-war era. Lost and tangled somewhere within that sociological conflagration was Bill McCoy, a veteran of that terrible war and a man still struggling to find his place in the country he'd fought so savagely to preserve. Still plagued by vivid memories of the battlefield, Bill comes upon an opportunity that might finally offer him a measure of pride and peace. But unknownst to Bill, a cruel, merciless, sinister force awaits him in the desert. One that not only threatens to shatter his hopes for a future, but that might also cost a great many people their lives. And their dignity.