It's the Great Depression in small-town Ontario. Twelve-year-old orphans Garry Mattern and Duggan Steel have just been convicted of Habitual Delinquency for trashing their orphanage and embarrassing its sadistic overlord - the Reverend Lattimore-Smith. Although they are sentenced to the Workhouse for 90 days, empathetic Judge Scobbie has set in motion a plan that will free them from their grim prospects in Morgansville, and put them on a westbound train to the mountains of British Columbia and the custody of their mysterious rancher uncle, Hammond Steel. From the Kanaka Bar Ranch to Vancouver high-society and beyond, Gary and Duggan grapple with their damaged heritage under the gritty tutelage of Hammond Steel, and come of age into a world on the brink of war.