Seventeen-year-old Bethann nearly loses her life attempting to trace her birth family, and becomes resigned to helping her adopted sister raise her children and occasionally helping Colin McKay at the local mercantile. Life is not all work, however. McKay encourages her writing and Matty Pope, her neighbor on nearby Riverbend plantation, become a close friend.

Matty's half-brother, Henry, arrives in North Carolina and Bethann is instantly attracted to his dark good looks and cosmopolitan air. Henry's determination to prove he is the rightful owner of Riverbend forces Matty to reveal the truth about Henry's parentage and Henry flees to England.

Bethann pens a scathing account of the evils of slavery that is serialized in a Boston newspaper. When she realizes she has unwittingly put her adopted family in danger, Bethann faces an agonizing choice.