After cheating the hangman twice--once after the Battle of Culloden in Scotland and again at Marshalsea Prison--Jamie MacGillivray is sentenced to indentured servitude in colonial America where he teams up with a poor village girl similarly sentenced through serfdom, revolt, escape, and romantic entanglements.

Scotland. In 1746, at the Battle of Culloden, Jamie MacGillivray, narrowly escapes a roadside execution only to be recaptured by the victors and shipped to Marshalsea Prison. There he cheats the hangman a second time before being sentenced to transportation and indentured servitude in colonial America "for the term of his natural life." Jenny Ferguson, a poor, village girl swept up on false charges by the English, is also sent in chains to the New World. The two continue to cross paths, through servitude, revolt, escape, and romantic entanglements. -- adapted from jacket