Jamie Pyke, son of the master of Tall Oaks plantation and his kitchen slave, is passing as a wealthy white aristocrat in Philadelphia. His secret identity and even his life are threatened when he is compelled by a promise to travel back to the South -- where he is still being hunted as an escaped slave -- to rescue a beloved young boy named Pan who has been kidnapped and sold into slavery. Pan is unprepared for the brutal life of the slave quarters until he finds an ally in the compassionate nurse, Sukey, and she hatches a plan to help him escape through the Underground Railroad.