1827. Duncan Lammons, a disgraced young man from Kentucky, sets out to join the American army in the province of Texas, hoping that here he may live and love as he pleases. That same year, Cecelia, a young slave in Virginia, runs away for the first time. Soon infamous for her escape attempts, Cecelia drifts through the reality of slavery until she encounters frontiersman Sam Fisk, who rescues her from a slave auction in New Orleans. She travels with Sam to his homestead in Texas. In this new territory they begin an unlikely life together, unaware that their fates are intertwined with those of Sam's former army mates- some of whom harbor dangerous dreams of their own. -- adapted from front flap