Orphaned at an early age in Dickensian England, young Jonathan Dalley, a ratcatcher's son, finds himself crossing the broad Atlantic in 1857 on an aged ship, under the spell of two old pirates. On the way he encounters a one-legged man, a long-winded preacher, gypsies, a prostitute, and runaway slaves. His adventures thrust him into the middle of the Civil War and slavery, with all its horrors. Somehow he survives it all and finds what he has been searching for ... the same dream we all chase.