The Immigrants — Howard Fast

Dan Layette -- the roughneck son of an Italian fisherman. He battled out of the rubble of the San Francisco earthquake to build a mighty shipping empire; rose to the gilded heights of Nob Hill society through a loveless marriage to the daughter of the city's wealthiest family -- and risked it all for the beautiful Oriental woman who was his secret, scandalous passion.

This is the story of America's newcomers, whose hungers were fed only with hope... And of the bold few who built that hope into a world of money and power... Who dreamed the American dream and made American history, while the new century came of age.