Judson Ringo has not been dealt an easy hand in life. After loosing his father, and nine months later his mother, he is left on his own at seventeen in rural 1890s Kentucky. He goes to Tennessee to live with his uncle, but instead of being treated like family, he is a slave. Judson faces each challenge as it comes, thinking only to survive. After four years in bondage, John Harrington dies and Judson is set free. He returns to his father's farm on a cold winter night, finds it in ruins, is suspected of murder, and begins life all over, finding strength in the midst of struggle