In the spring of 1775, Frances Fleming, a young girl of sixteen raised on a Maryland plantation, sails into New York harbor for an extended visit with a family of distant cousins from London who recently settled there. Neither she-nor the loving father who sent her-know the city is suffering. Emotions for and against the colonies' rebellion are rending the open and prosperous city, and its families, into frightened factions and unruly mobs. Trade is faltering, families who can are absconding to country farms or Long Island estates, and government is tottering. In the summer of 1776, when the British Royal Navy takes possession of New York harbor, Fran is falling in love, affirming her own loyalties, and feeling a kinship with both sides of the divided family she lives with: a kinship which leads her into informing for Washington's army...and being friends with the Navy officer her cousin becomes engaged to. Her deep love of sailing takes her onto the East River and its treacherous passage known as Hell Gate, and this becomes a great advantage when the family is forced to stay with acquaintances on Long Island. By the spring of 1777, New York is a diminished city under martial law, the headquarters of General Howe's army in America. While doing her best to help, comfort, and learn from her adopted family, Fran has developed lasting loves and practical friendships as well as enemies. But she can no longer abide the divisive forces engulfing her in the occupied city the family has returned to. Independent and willful, her nature-which has led into many a minor adventure-now propels her out on the water in the most dangerous action she has yet to undertake.