"Set in the eighteen eighties, Sean Murphy walks away from the drudgery of his life as a tenant farmer in Ireland's County Kerry and walks towards the shipyards of Dublin. It is here he learns of New Zealand and the freedoms he never knew existed until now. With the dream of owning his own farm, Sean sets out on the perilous journey that would eventually take him to Middle River at Mokau where, as the deck-hand on the SS Cardiff, he would meet and eventually marry the beautiful Gwyneth Thomas. But meanwhile, Sean cannot and will not forget the beautiful Chinese girl, Moonyeen Wu who is also the prey of the notorious Marco Cacavalli, a pimp supplying girls from Wellington to the local brothel . The bitter rivalry for Moonyeen between Sean and Marco takes them to a level of hatred where there can be only one way out. In the meanwhile, Gwyneth loses Sean's child and with no medical help available, her life now depends on her husband's mistress. This is the story of the building of New Zealand where the tools are not just the picks and shovels of a burgeoning country, but hope, courage, passion, and an overwhelming love of the land. Unshackled from the traditions of their homelands, the men and women work, fight, love, and sometimes kill for what they believe in and the right to claim the land as their own."--Book cover.