1858: Jesse Swinson, the young son of an Irishman forced off his land by poverty and starvation, comes to America through willpower, fortune and piracy, determined to regain his father`s lost inheritance. Here, he meets his match in every sense: his wife, Colista Anita, has the strength and courage to give up a life of easy wealth and privilege to carve out a difficult but exciting new life in the raw new world. Spanning four generations and two centuries, this powerful story vividly describes the lifestyle and spirit of America`s pioneers in one family`s determination to create itself anew, agaist the backdrop of the coming age of America itself.