"We are all committing treason by supporting the rebel cause."

Since war began outright in 1775, Bethiah Rogers has learned how military events may impact the everyday lives of those with no ties to the military at all. In addition to the rising tensions before the outbreak of the war, Bethiah has witnessed the recent occupation of Philadelphia by the British army. The war has also postponed her expected marriage to her longtime friend, Levi Finley, who has been establishing his role in his father's business interests in Boston with the expectation to move her there once settled. It is an arrangement that benefits both Bethiah and Levi, allowing Levi to remain with the man he loves and Bethiah to not endure the usual intimate expectations of a wife. As the war continues seemingly without end, Bethiah and Levi choose to cease postponing the wedding, allowing Bethiah to join Levi and his partner, Jasper, in Boston. There she takes up the operations of the shopfront where acquired goods are sold, and she becomes a partner in the ownership of a privateer known as the Scot.

Yet, as Bethiah is enjoying her new life and the family they have created for themselves, it becomes clear that the war may disrupt their happiness yet again. Soon they are beset by those seeking to be paid the bounty for capturing Levi, a bounty put on him for his association with the Scot, a vessel that had been a ship in the British Royal Navy before being taken to serve as a privateer. By the time they discover the identity of the master behind the plot against them, it may be too late for Bethiah's family - both the family in Boston and the father she left behind in Philadelphia - and it may also prove too late for the Continental Congress and Washington's army.