It is late August, 1815. Eleven-year-old Jenny Moses and her mother, Annie, work as field slaves on a southern Alabama plantation. When they learn of their master's plans to sell Jenny and separate mother and daughter, they choose to run. During a perilous week-long journey, they are helped by Cato, another young runaway, and together they travel to the banks of Florida's Apalachicola River. There they find friendly settlements of escaped slaves, free blacks and Native Americans. With the aid of an abandoned but fully-fortified British fort, Jenny, Annie, Cato and a new friend-Crazy Bear-are...