With his father's death, fifteen-year-old Brian becomes owner of a steamboat company suddenly beset with problems.

Over the course of time, a luxury steamship loses its luster and is eventually abandoned after changing hands many times. A wealthy family over time loses their wealth and are eventually forced out of the poorest housing available with the others in the community. But when the poor people find the ship and rebuild it, both the ship and its new inhabitants find new purpose in life.

Barnaby Skye and his Crow Indian Wife travel to St. Louis in the hopes of finding a job as a post trader, but along the way, the couple encounter numerous obstacles.

"Set aboard a nineteenth century riverboat theater, this is the moving, page-turning story of a charmingly frank and naive seamstress who is blackmailed into saving runaways on the Underground Railroad, jeopardizing her freedom, her livelihood, and a new love"--