This saga chronicles the lives and fortunes of four generations of women in the York family, from the Russian occupation of Alaska to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Detailing the triumphs and trials of what became a dynasty of fish and timber barons during a crucial century in Alaska's history, the novel opens with teenage Nadia Karimoff, a half-Russian, half-Native American orphan living in Sitka, being kidnapped and sold to a mysterious Yankee named Noah York.