When captured rebel Scotsman Alex MacKinnon is granted the king’s mercy–transport across the Atlantic Ocean and exile to the colony of North Carolina–he’s indentured as a blacksmith to Edmund Carey, prosperous owner of Severn Plantation. The arrangement devastates the Scot who mourns the life he lost and finds life on a slave plantation intolerable. Unwittlingly, Alex is drawn into the plight of Carey’s slaves, particularly those connected to Carey’s stepdaughter, Joanna.

A mistress longing for a different life, Joanna Carey is expected to wed the plantation’s overseer, Phineas Reeves, who has no patience for her kinder vision for Severn’s future. For guidance, Joanna relies on itinerant minister Reverend Pauling, who travels to the plantation seasonally, bringing the gospel to all with ears to listen.

Despite his growing bond with Joanna, Alex longs to break the chains of servitude and forge his freedom, until he’s face with the choice that hounds him: continue down his destructive, rebellious path or embrace the faith of a man like Pauling, whose freedom in Christ no earthly power can steal. But the price of such mercy is total surrender and perhaps Alex’s very life.