Sorcha O’Shea is a poor factory artisan who has the opportunity to be present at an event which changes the course of history: the race for dominance of the first passenger steam locomotive. The winner of the Rainhill Trials will build the steam locomotives for the Manchester-Liverpool line, the first passenger rail line in history. The year is 1829. While Sorcha is at the Rainhill Trials watching history unfold, she meets Robert Stephenson, the engineer who built the entry Rocket, as well as Thaddeus Fulbright, a newspaper reporter for The Liverpool Mercury who annoyingly turns up at every corner. Lawrence Davenport, Sorcha’s employer, has less than honorable designs on Sorcha, whose family depends on her income. Lawrence holds Sorcha’s family’s survival over her head.