Sydney is booming in 1855 and life looks grand for John Leary: his construction dreams are coming true, his beloved wife Clarissa is expecting their first child and, with his partner Sean Connaire, he has produced some of the city’s significant buildings. But success provokes jealousy, and a mysterious rival sabotages a vital Leary site.

John Leary cannot control his own company while his father-in-law holds a majority share, so he arranges a buyout on his own behalf-but this new, silent partner poses a serious risk to the harmony of his marriage. Meanwhile ex-convict Gerry Gleeson makes himself known to John as his uncle and helps him track down the saboteur.

Raw ambition, guilty secrets and undercover deals-will they bring the young builder to ruin or triumph?

This is the second novel in The Australian Sandstone Series: a new, magnificent view of nineteenth-century Sydney from the ground up.