Kidnapped from Africa as a child, Aminata Diallo becomes a slave but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she works for the British, recording the names of the Blacks who have served the King and earned their freedom in Nova Scotia. Aminata becomes one of these but the hardship and prejudice she encounters in Nova Scotia prompts her to follow her heart back to Africa, and then on to London, where she bears witness to the injustices of slavery.