Liz Spocott, a runaway slave, dreams of the future. She sees confusing scenes of black people riding in horseless carriages, children smoking strange cigars and carrying pistols, women in lighted boxes, men playing odd games in garish costumes, “every bit of pride, decency, and morality squeezed out of them” (1).

Liz is being held captive in an attic and has been severely wounded. During her escape, through the marshland and swamps of Dorchester County on the eastern shore of Maryland, a slave catcher shot her in the head. She managed to evade the slave catchers. However, Little George, a teenage slave working for Patty Cannon, captured Liz instead. Liz has spent three weeks chained in Patty’s attic healing from her wound and dreaming strange dreams of the future.

When she wakes, Liz feels improved enough to take in her surroundings, finding a dozen people chained alongside her. Liz is shackled to an old woman who sings a soothing song. The old woman tells Liz that they are in Joe’s Tavern, held by Patty Cannon, a “trader of souls” (7).

The old woman asks Liz if she knows “the code,” but Liz does not understand what she means.