EMILY LODGE, an outspoken pro-North teenage supporter in the Civil War, volunteers to help in a Confederate field hospital while waiting for a pass to return North. Betrayed by someone she thought was a friend, Emily suddenly faces charges of being a Union spy, a hanging offence in the South during that conflict.

GIDEON TUGWELL faces losing the family farm unless he can raise money by secretly driving a wagon load of grain to market in spite of possible seizures by either desperate Yankee or Confederate troops. But with victory in sight, teenager Gideon stumbles into even greater danger when he tries to help a fugitive slave.

NAT TRAVIS, a runaway slave safely in Canada during the Civil War, risks his life by returning to Virginia to find his mother and help her escape to freedom. Nat’s faces a dilemma when he learns that one of his brothers is also in chains nearby. Does Nat only save his mother, or attempt the seemingly impossible task of rescuing both mother and brother and starting them on their way to freedom?