"Indentured servant Fanny Beck has been forced to sing for riverboat passengers since she was a girl. All she wants is to live a quiet life with her family as soon as her seven-year contract is over. When she discovers that the captain has no intention of releasing her, she seizes an opportunity to escape--an impulse that leads Fanny to a group of enslaved people who are on their own quest for liberty. After the star performer of the River Peacock is presumed drowned, Sloan Kirkpatrick, the riverboat's captain, sets off to find her replacement. His journey will bring him face to face with his own past and a deeper understanding of what it truly means to be free"--,From the publisher's web site.