Brought to New England and bound into servitude to pay her father's debts, Alice Cole, at fifteen, can barely remember the time when she was not a servant to John Morton. His daughter, Nabby—only three years older than Alice—begins as Alice's childhood companion, but when Nabby weds, she becomes Alice's mistress. But the marriage is not what it appears, and Alice, endangered by its storm, defies her new master and the law, and escapes to Boston. Impulsively stowing away on a ship to Satucket on Cape Cod, Alice believes that she has left her old life and her secrets behind. Yet in a time of unrest and uncertainty, as political and personal stakes rise and intertwine, she discovers that freedom, friendship, trust, and love each have a price far greater than she ever imagined.