John Shawcross, a man in his sixties who has recently been given the devastating news that he has cancer, falls down a hidden crevice in the woods, sustaining crippling injuries. There he lies waiting for a rescue he fears will never come. But the fall and the cancer that grows within him are only small fractions of his life's sad, but often heart-warming, story.In 1959, when John is just ten years old, he witnesses his best friend being struck and killed by a steam train on the local railway line. As time goes by, and he grows from a boy into a man, The Railway's mysterious and sinister origins are revealed. Through love lost and found, and tragedy and joy, John discovers secrets, some from beyond the grave, that have profound consequences on his entire life.