1847. Ben and Sonja Pulaski, a husband and wife team, supported by their sons Isaac and Aaron, steal slaves in the deep south and smuggle them north to freedom. Working their barges on the Canal near Havre de Grace, Maryland, the Pulaskis travel between slave state and free state, awakening in them the moral law that outweighs Maryland slavery laws. After gaining the Schooner Raven, their commitment to freedom takes Ben into Washington with a dangerous plan that sends him hiding from the law in Leonardtown, Maryland.