In England, Grace learns from a former friend that her husband is Cabeto is in America on a South Carolina plantation. Grace dons a sailor's disguise ansd signs the manifest of the only ship headed for America--a detestable slave ship. But the voyage is barely underway when her secret is discovered. Immediately, she is locked up in the hold.
Upon arrival on the American coast, Grace is put on the auction block where she is offered at a premium price as a prized house slave. She is bought immediately. But as a slave, Grace has a fatal flaw: she can read. When her owner catches her with a book, he beats her and sells her cheaply to a man of moderate means who is passing through on his way to georgia. As the plantation disappears into the distance, so do all her hopes of finding Cabeto.
