In the days before the Civil War, a runaway slave named Liz Spocott breaks free from her captors and escapes into the labyrinthine swamps of Marylands eastern shore, setting loose a drama of violence and hope among slave catchers, plantation owners, watermen, runaway slaves, and free blacks. Liz is near death, wracked by disturbing visions of the future, and armed with the Code, a fiercely guarded cryptic means of communication for slaves on the run. Lizs flight and her dreams of tomorrow will thrust all those near her toward a mysterious, redemptive fate.