In the quest for his family tree, cruelly uprooted 300 years ago by the inhumanity of slavery, in the early 1990s Paul Crooks undertook research which led him from London to the Caribbean, and from there to the Gold Coast of Africa where his forebears' story began. The facts he uncovered form the basis if this gripping novel. It's the late eighteenth century. Aboard a slave ship bound from West Africa to Jamaica, a terrified young boy is cared for by Ami, a fellow captive, who becomes his surrogate mother during that nightmare voyage. They are sold to separate owners, but their lives remain curiously intertwined, and the boy, now a man named August, marries Ami's daughter, Sarah. The book tells the story of their lives, their part in the struggle for emancipation, and the hope and faith that sustain them.