Donald MacDonald wed Molly Poole, daughter of an itinerant Irish peddler, much to the disgust of his family. He is disinherited by his father and sent to the wilds of the Oregon Coast Range to build a farm in a broad, lovely valley. There is just one problem: the valley is filled with great trees that must be removed to create the farm. Since the trees are much too large to burn, they are split and sawed into lumber and hauled away. The sale of the lumber adds to the wealth of the couple as the years pass. The MacDonalds have nine sons. The first has dark hair after his father. The rest have various shades of red after their Irish mother. The process of removing the trees evolves into a major enterprise with many lots and offices throught the nation and even abroad. Every national and world event that had an impact on the timber industry is included in the novel as the empire grows.