A compilation, selected from various sources and arranged chronologically, of the reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves about their experiences from the leaving of Africa through the Civil War and into the early twentieth century.

Rudi dreams of climbing to the summit of the Citadel, the highest mountain in Switzerland. Only one man dared approach the top, & he died in the pursuit: Josef Matt, Rudi's father. Rudy yearns to do what his father could not do.

Young Calpurnia takes her dog, Buggy-horse, and follows her nose to a secret river in a Florida forest, where she catches enough fresh fish to feed her hungry neighbors, even after giving some to the forest creatures she meets on the way home.