The time had long passed when the Nilssons could even dream of retracing their steps back to Europe. They now had no other home but this virgin sweep of forest-- no other future but the one they could carve out with their strength and sweat and blood. Through winters that killed and summers that scorched...through illness and accident..through the cruel tricks of fate and their all to human failings...they fought to prevail in a land that was no longer a dream but a reality, and in a struggle they could not afford to lose. ( )