Someone is setting fires in New York City. It is 1741 and, as a colony of Britain, America is at war with Spain. The people in New York City are on a heightened state of alert, living in fear of Catholics acting as Spanish secret agents. Phoebe, an enslaved girl, watches as the town erupts into mass hysteria when the whites in New York City convince themselves that the black slaves are planning an uprising. Her best friend, Cuffee, is implicated in the plot, and the king's men promise to let him go if he names names. Several people are hanged and many more are burned at the stake, but the mob won't rest until they find a mastermind behind the plan, someone Catholic and white-and there's suspicion that Phoebe's teacher Mr Ury is a priest.