Thirteen-year-old Nelly has just moved to Salem, Ohio, a Quaker town with many who support the anti-slavery cause.

Her family joins the Underground Railroad, using the secret room Nelly discovers. When she overhears a plot to tar and feather her father, the new editor of the Anti-Slavery Bugle, she realizes there are enemies even in Salem.

Nelly has a chance to fight back when she joins in a rescue, but she learns the hard way that the rescued girl isn't really free. When Nelly and her best friend at the Quaker girls' school become the target of a mean trick by a classmate, Nelly wants revenge. Threats against her father stir Nelly to plan retaliation. Or will her faith teach her a better way?