Commencing in Boston in the pre- and duration-era of the American Civil War, two white men vie for the love of a woman. The jealous rejected suitor arranges for his victorious rival to be abducted, dipped in a staining solution and sold South as a slave. His trials and struggle to survive make gripping reading, as one follows his life in slavery. The islands of love and humanity encountered in a sea of extreme cruelty, unbelievable suffering and degradation are rendered all the more precious for their rarity.