It is 1764 in Charles Town, South Carolina, and Harry's school for enslaved children has been in full swing for twenty years, despite the Negro Act of 1740. An enslaved person himself, Harry finds an unlikely ally in Hannah, a young Jewish girl from town who tutors Bintü, a recent acquisition of the prominent Reverend and Mistress Harte. But his school begins to feel the pressure as political winds shift and the Stamp Act causes revolt, uproar, and armed protests.