Johnny, a teenager in colonial Boston just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, becomes involved in the Cause as a messenger and a rider for a radical newspaper.
Brash young apprentice Johnny Tremain, injured in an accident that leaves him unable to practice his trade, becomes involved with Rab, a Boston printer, who draws Johnny with him into the events of the Revolutionary War.
When a fourteen-year-old silversmith apprentice is severely burned by molten silver, he becomes a dispatch rider for the Committee for Public Safety where he meets many Boston patriots involved in the new struggle for independence from England. There he learns that he may be able to overcome his handicap enough to join the fight.