In 1880 the Government of Canada commenced construction of a national railroad that was promised to British Columbia as a condition of entering Confederation in 1871. The section of the railroad through the Fraser Canyon at Yale would prove to be the most formidable of construction projects. The contractor, Andrew Onderdonk, was in need of manpower to finish his section of the line, and to fill that need he contracted with Chinese firms for labourers direct from China. In Danial Neil's epic story we follow the journey of Li Tat, an indentured labourer, from his home in China's Guandong Province to the perilous cliffs of the Fraser Canyon in British Columbia.