In 1847, Samantha waits tables and serves grog at Logan's Tavern in Campbeltown, Scotland.

She joins the love of her life, the local Presbyterian minister, on an ill-fated voyage. The Reverend Charles Stuart is forced into exile (because of his zealous passion for the poor) and placed on an overloaded sailing ship to Wilmington, North Carolina. The ship barely survives the storm of the decade and runs aground near Kilmarnock, Virginia.

Samantha and Charles join the efforts of the Underground Railroad. They live under the threat of death by hanging from plantation owners and their hired assassins.

Inspired by Samantha, a great-granddaughter and a minister, who is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, uncover a conspiracy near Charlottesville, Virginia, that threatens democracy in the United States of America in the twenty-first century.