 The story chronicles the family fortunes from the economic panic of 1873 through the dramatic rise of American industry and trade unionism, though waves of immigration, class conflict, natural disaster, World War I, to Pearl Harbor.The first portion of the narrative covers the period 1873-83, when ironmaster William Campbell Scott, son of the deceased senior William Scott who had founded of the Scott Iron Works in 1836, led the company through the 1873 depression and American industrial progress, only to die at the hands of union agitators.The second section covers 1889-1929 and his son Paul, who inherits the mills and manages them well, embracing technology, the demands of the Spanish-American and first World Wars, and an enlightened view of labor.