Pascal, lame from birth, is a slave on a South Carolina plantation until his brother Gideon returns with word that slaves are free and can be given land. Pascal, his friend Nellie, and Gideon search in the Freedman's Bureau that gives land, face irate landowners who try to intimidate runaway slaves, carpet baggers who try to organize them, and scorn at their ability to live free. But they do manage well when given land. In the end the land is taken from them as new regulations develop, but Pascal has learned that freedom is something he holds inside himself, not something anyone can give him or take away from him.
