He saw a small brown face looking up at him. He reached down as her hands went up and pulled her into the boat. Her arms went around his neck, and she held on tight, moaning and crying. Jacques "Webfoot" Beaudreaux, a Union sailor in the bleak year of 1864, has just changed his life, although he does not know it yet. He has pulled a tiny slave child, a little girl, from the Savannah River, and nothing will ever be the same again.

He must get her to a safe haven in New York City, but as he waits for a reply from the orphanage, he must fight blockade runners at sea and violent Southerners on land.

While in New York, his life changes yet again. He falls in love with a very dark black woman with a limp.....Sarah Jenkins. She shatters his notion of black people and is with him when they fight for their lives during the New York Draft Riots.

This is a tale of war on land and sea, of riots, and slavery. It is also the story of a young white man whose life is altered by a young black woman and a tiny slave girl.

This is Webfoot's story.