It is 1880, and Canada is a vast, wild country where pioneers have started to build a railway from east to west. Edward, a wealthy family teenager in England, leaves home to meet his brother in Jasper, a ramshackle town in western Canada. On arrival, Edward finds to his great dismay his brother, George, a rail company surveyor, is no longer there. Edward is left all alone to fend for himself in the wilds.

Can the seventeen-year-old Edward survive the terrible bad luck, treacherous weather conditions and life-threatening challenges ...?