They are Canada's third wealthiest family, the fifth-largest private landowner in the U.S.A. They have a monopoly on New Brunswick's English-language print media and billions of dollars in offshore accounts. They are the Irvings. And they have always placed a premium on discretion and family unity. They built their empire - which includes Canada's largest refinery, soon to be linked by pipeline to Alberta's oil fields - by remaining private. Poitras tells the story of how these ambitious, often ruthless entrepreneurs came to dominate the economic and political affairs of Atlantic Canada.