4In 1850, Luke is a twelve year old Afro-Cherokee, with an African father and a Cherokee mother. Sold into slavery at the age of eight, whipped for learning to read, he is sold again to a slave speculator, and once more to a farmer with a twelve year old son, as a play mate for the farmer's son Isaac. Treated kindly, the two boys grow up together, learning the ways of the farm and some of the ways of the Cherokee. After the start of the Civil War, now in their twenties, the two boys make their way up the Underground Railroad to freedom for Luke and to the Union forces for Isaac.