This is the story of three lives brought together by the high mountains of the West. Attracted by the myth of Gum San, the golden mountain where they could get rich, thousands of desperate Chinese workers leave their homeland with a dream – to make a fortune in North America by working on a railroad through the dangerous mountain passes. They learn that railways bring good luck to only a few. They learn that laying a railroad means explosives and steel, stones and wood. Every meter is acquired through work and sweat. Every kilometer is accomplished with courage, fear, and death. The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, and was the last major road built in North America and left behind a mythology that still lives today as part of our heritage.