When the misused indentured servant, teenager Darius Jamison, finds a runaway slave boy hiding under the corncrib one day as he goes about his chores, he gives him aid, then decides in a moment of bravery to run away with the young boy toward the north. After a close scrape with a mountain lion, the injury he receives results in serious physical problems for Darius. He is wracked by fever and knows the pair must seek adult help. They are befriended by a farmer and his wife, who want to help the boys. But can they keep the inquisitive sheriff from finding out just who their "nephew" really is, and can they keep the runaway slave safely hidden until they can find a way to help him reach his father in the freedom of the North?