Three slaves run away from a cotton plantation to seek freedom in British territory. The best bounty hunters money can buy are hired and horrendous punishments await the returned fugitives. The outcome should be oh-so predictable. Yet no one can foresee the far-reaching impacts the escape will have on the plantation, the girl left behind, helpful strangers, the bounty hunters, and ordinary people from Tennessee to what is now Ontario, then called Canada West.

Runaway slaves discover they are not safe even when they cross the international border. For lucrative rewards, bounty hunters are abducting newcomers and returning them to their previous hellish existence. When concerned citizens form vigilance committees to put a stop to the practice, reluctant heroes get caught up in bloodshed that changes their lives forever.

The Only Thing Necessary: A Tale from the Cameron Line is a story of hardships, the quest for freedom, loss, generosity, racial prejudice, betrayal, clashing moral codes, friendship, and violence. The tale begins with a flight from bondage. It evolves into the immigrant's attempt to find a place in his new society and a mission to prepare for an invasion of British North America by an increasingly troubled United States.