Set during the American Revolution, in the months prior to the Colonial Army’s disastrous winter at Valley Forge, Forge introduces us to Curzon, a young escaped slave and the narrator of the story. He awakes to find himself floating in a small boat rowed by Isabella, a fellow slave, who was instrumental the two escaping from British confinement. Isabella – her hands blistered and torn from rowing, her mind addled from the exhaustion of their escape – insists they head to Charleston, to search of her sister, Ruth. Ruth, Curzon admits to the reader, had been sold and sent to the “islands” months ago.

Nine months pass, and in that time Isabella has left with their money to find her sister, forcing Curzon to work for an unscrupulous and thieving conveyancer named Trumbull. After many months of denying Curzon payment for ferrying supplies for the Colonial rebels, Trumbull fires him. In retribution, Curzon steals some of Trumbull’s spoons and four shoe buckles, and heads south, through the wilderness, toward Albany. It’s here we find him, weaving through the American wild, surrounded by the many threats and dangers of the time – namely wolves, and both the Rebel and British armies, who are skirmishing throughout the area around Valley Forge.