I picked up this book thinking it would be more descriptive regarding ships and ship building at the turn of the century, however it is the story of Winston family. The Winston family were Ship builders in the late 1800's. The book is about the families life; wealthy family. The main character, Sara Winston, falls in love with a ship captain and there life begins... their children's lives. It does make reference to the change from Sails to steam as The Winston's build luxury ocean liners; named after there children. It somewhat follows the history of the day with the sinking of the Lusitania and world war 1.