A little red train goes on a trip from the seaside to the forest, the city, the farm, and finally the station for a rest, where it is visited by a bunch of noisy birds.

In 1908, a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide. The man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father's name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide but to murder. When more suspicious deaths follow, it becomes clear that someone -- an elusive spy -- is orchestrating the destruction...

A "tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s"--

When the other engines refuse, the Little Blue Engine tries to pull a stranded train full of toys and good food over the mountain.