In 1765, on the frontier borderlands of colonial New York, twelve-year-old Annabel Cameron is fascinated by fourteen-year-old Ernie, the son of Ury Snell, a villainous landjobber and rum seller to the Mohawks. Her bid to befriend the moody boy gets off to a bumpy start and when a brutal attack in the woods leaves Ernie brain-damaged and docile, she leaps at the chance to insinuate herself as his companion. In the process, she falls in with the unscrupulous dealings of his father, putting herself on a thorny path of no return.

In deep by the age of fifteen, her life becomes dangerously complicated by the appearance of young Taran Mackay, a King's Indian agent charged with protecting Native interests. He takes on Annabel's case, to her dismay, and she begins to walk a perilous tightrope between the interests competing for the continent. 

Follow headstrong Annabel as she chases fate, fortune and misfortune on her freedom-seeking journey through the American wilderness.