Injured in an accident while building the Southern Pacific railroad, Cecil Atherton finds himself drawn to a vast, secluded estate in the California foothills in the 1860's. A mysterious woman, Norah Greene, tasks him with a seemingly impossible mission: to build a railroad in her backyard.
As he delves deeper into this bizarre undertaking, he uncovers a web of family secrets. Norah's young son Samuel battles a secret illness, her older son Thomas guards a fiercely silent sorrow, and the enigmatic matriarch herself is hiding a tragic event from the family. As Cecil becomes entangled in their lives, they all must confront their own demons and decide whether it is better to live in truth or delusion.
Battling physical exhaustion from the lingering effects of his injuries and the growing addiction to opiates it has created, Cecil Atherton must not only find a way to overcome these impediments to complete the bizarre undertaking, but also forge an unlikely path to redemption. As the grueling labor pushes him to his limits, shadowy remnants of his former life suddenly appear, and Cecil will be forced to choose between his desire for atonement and protecting the Greene family from the impending harm of his old mistakes.