CHRISTINE THOMPSON and ADAM VESTRY are Providentially reunited four years following their first adventure in The Invisible Empire. The year is 1876. Chicago, just five years after the Great Fire, continues to rebuild its reputation as Queen of the West. The nation stands on the threshold of greatness, and a hope in Progress reigns. Christine, determined to make her own way, joins a beautiful utopian community called New Eden, where new ideas, hard work and equality have seemingly recreated Paradise. Adam, now an investigative magazine reporter, pursues connections between organized crime and business. Adam discovers that beneath Chicago's gemlike surface lies a dark and dangerous underworld where greed and power bring ruin to all who dare embrace it. Adam follows a trail of corruption to the doorstep of New Eden. He will need all his wits and his faith to rescue Christine and to foil the evil that seeks to bring flames and destruction to the Queen of the West once again