When winsome socialite Mia Stanley insists on researching downtrodden seaman's wives on the docks of Philadelphia for the magazine she works for, she uncovers a scheme that puts her own life in danger.

In 1777 Philadelphia, young Maddy Rose spies for General Washington's army by using an unusual code to communicate with her soldier brother.

When her family moves to Philadelphia's Society Hill neighborhood in 1866, Addy discovers that her new home holds dangerous secrets--including one connected to the North Carolina plantation she had escaped from only two years earlier. Includes a brief overview of the experiences of African Americans during Reconstruction, the period immediately following the Civil War.