Magda of Ferrin had been promised the Sunset Ocean, and she is going to claim it. She has to earn a living first, trading goods between far flung settlements in hard to reach places. With a load of goods for Mountain Top, she sets out on the mountain roads into disaster. Bankruptcy, poverty, and abandonment await her there. Can she escape Lowbrow's iron fist and save Leilani and her family from starvations and worse? Will she and hers survive the downhill trip, alive, intact, and with a few coins left in her pocket?