1896, Susannah, Bethlehem, Mary and Free. Two women in their 50s, two girls 13--drawn together to write down the story of the women's 1855 escape from a slaveholding farm in Virginia. Susannah's guardian is Bethlehem's "master"--a minister and advocate of slavery. When the women are themselves 13, mistress and slave defiantly join forces to steal away North to freedom. Bethlehem, 1855: "It was a longer road that I had ever guessed, and I am on it still." Her road is ours.