"The boy watched in horror as one of the robed and hooded men pushed the Negro off the stool. A second man kicked the stool away. The Negro's body jerked. It swung back and forth and then it was still. The only sounds heard at that moment were the rustling of leaves in nearby magnolia trees and the boy's muted sobs. He knew that what had happened was his fault, and he would live with the scars until he died." In November 1950 seventeen year old Peter Mason decides to 'look around' America and sails, steerage, on the French Line Liberte. He has survived the German blitz on London, but has lost his mother. His father, returning from service in the British army has long since deserted the family. He spends several days in New York, then drifts down to Jackson, Mississippi. What he finds there he will never forget, and it will irrevocably alter the course of his life.