One woman's unexpected friendship with a plantation slave awakens a journey of discovery into the heart of love, justice, and God's design for all mankind. Eighteen-year-old Eliza Drake longs for a freedom beyond her grasp. With pressures from her wealthy cotton planter father and a proposal on the horizon, her future is already determined. But when friendship blooms with a candid field slave, she unearths the dark side of her sophisticated upbringing and braves the danger of educating blacks in the antebellum South. Caught between two worlds, Eliza wrestles between loyalty to her family and her conscience, leading to her ultimate quandary-can love exist beyond the accepted bounds of race and class? And what peril might lay in wait if she follows the prodding of her heart?