After the bloody Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, Esther, a twelve-year old mulatto girl and her mother, Jewel decides to leave the Bolden Plantation in South Georgia to seek out a better life — a life of freedom. But instead of going up North where many others are heading, her mother has something else in mind. In the end, does it work out for them or did Jewel make the mistake of trading one form of slavery for another?