In the late 1800s, Marianne travels westward on the Orphan Train in hopes of being placed with a caring family.

"Everything has a price...Railway magnate Tom Severin is wealthy and powerful enough to satisfy any desire as soon as it arises. Anything--or anyone--is his for the asking. It should be simple to find the perfect wife--and from his first glimpse of Lady Cassandra Ravenel, he's determined to have her. But the beautiful and quick-witted Cassandra is equally determined to marry for love--the one thing he can't give. Everything except her... Severin is...

Fifteen-year-old Chinese Tam Ling Fan poses as her deceased brother Jing to take a job as a laborer on the transcontinental railroad in 1867 America. She hopes to secure enough money to free her jailed father who was falsely accused of treason. However, Tam underestimates how hard and dangerous the work is, and uses everything in her power to keep her secret and survive the racism around her.

When their father is sent away to prison, three London children move to the country where they keep busy preventing accidents on the nearby railway, making many new friends, and generally learning a good deal about themselves.

A young boy hears the story of his great-great-great-grandfather and his brother who came to the United States to make a better life for themselves helping to build the transcontinental railroad.