It's 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a secret: two runaway slaves are hiding in the shack behind her husband's house. Suddenly, she is at the centre of not only the era's greatest moral dilemma, but her own as well. Should she be a 'good wife' and report the fugitives to her husband? Or will she defy convention and come to their aid?