Daniel Jacobs is the Captain of a small sailing ship, servicing the small towns along rivers on the Georgia coast. Although it is just prior to the civil war starting, business is good, as he competes against his rival in business. Things start to change as he discovers a woman stow away, that is a runaway slave, and soon he finds himself falling in love with her. He finds himself helping other slaves and ends up as an engineer of the under ground railroad. When war finally breaks out they are caught in the middle of it and have to use all their wits to survive it. Attacked by a union war ship and hunted by the confederate navy at the same time. He tries to hide in Savannah, even as General Sherman's Army is closing in from Atlanta on it's march to the sea.