At the end of the American Civil War, ten-year-old Sovrin is alone and lost in the South. At times, he thinks he would've been better off if he'd died along with his parents in the war. After all, who wants a kid with a disability? Tiker is a cockney-accented, former bare-knuckle prizefighter from England. An agent provocateur for the Confederacy under the guise of a confidence man, he is sent to spy on a Union Army Colonel. When Tiker and Sovrin meet while trying to cross the Tennessee state line, Tiker is struck by the boy's confidence and gumption. As a way out of being a spy, but also out of guilt, he takes Sovrin in. Their journey becomes one of redemption when Tiker seizes an opportunity involving a slave-trading general of the Confederate Army. Historical American Civil War Fiction