Skyfire is an historical novel set between 1819 in Ireland and 1860 in Chicago. Seamus, a young fugitive from the Old World, comes to the New World to form a shipping dynasty by way of the lessons learned while digging canals in Ohio, trapping in the north woods, becoming a married man in a Pottowatomi village, and working for the people who found a city. The lessons he learns through love, friendship, and betrayal help to make him into the kind of man who is respected, admired, and loved not only by his sons but by everyone who knows him.