Caleb is a 13 year old privileged boy in Texas going to a nice private academy. When his father falls on hard times and everything is taken away, he is sent to live with relatives for a while. First with a snooty aunt, and then with a hard-working grandmother who runs an inn. There he befriends Edith, an older cousin who he has never met, and Michah, a ridiculously superstitious hired hand about his age.

When Caleb nearly drowns in a flash flood, he is saved by an escaped slave, and if forced to question his own attitudes towards slaves and slavery.

The second half of the book is fairly good, once it gets to the point of the story. There doesn't seem to be any reason for Caleb to have grown up in a wealthy home and school, and indeed after the first chapter, he never behaves as though he did. The short stay with the stuffy aunt is completely irrelevant to the story, as is the seemingly endless chatter about Michah's infinite superstitions. ( )