A lovers' quarrel. A wild mustang. A card game gone bad. These are only some of the complications which threaten to derail a young couple's plan for independence. In this sequel to Trains to Concordia, Charley O'Brien and Christina Batachi pursue their dream of becoming landowners in the summer of 1900 by stowing away in a boxcar heading West. Charley's sister, Jennie, struggles to break free from the social confines of the period after she experiences the blush of first love and discovers the possibility that women can be a force for political change. Nine-year-old Lucy McCleery arrives by orphan train with a secret which threatens her finding a permanent placement. A Train to Nowhere explores the fragile nature of living in a period of rugged individualism and westward expansion on the edge of twentieth-century America.