When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family. Orphaned while onboard a ship from Ireland to America, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded...

"Life is quiet and ordinary in Amal's Pakistani village, but she had no complaints, and besides, she's busy pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher one day. Her dreams are temporarily dashed when--as the eldest daughter--she must stay home from school to take care of her siblings. Amal is upset, but she doesn't lose hope and finds ways to continue learning. Then the unimaginable happens--after an accidental run-in with the son of her village's corrupt...

"Pleasance Dunstan is used to silently bearing the cruelties put upon her by her thoughtless family. But nothing can prepare her for the greatest indignity of all: being sold into servitude to a man as wild as Tearlach O'Duine. His untamed ways are whispered of thoughout town, and he has set his sights on Pleasance to be more than his servant. He will have her in his bed. Pleasance could escape this fate with a word, but her fierce pride keeps her...

"Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped "da Man" in the 1960s by hopping a train. He then spends 18 homeless years on the streets of Dallas until he meets Deborah. Her husband, Ron, an international art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani suits and art-collecting millionaires is uncomfortable with Denver. Then the story takes a devastating twist when Deborah discovers she has cancer. Will Ron embrace...

Fourteen-year-old Rachel Marsh, an indentured servant in the Boston household of John and Abigail Adams, is caught up in the colonists' unrest that eventually escalates into the massacre of March 5, 1770.

While working as an indentured servant for a Jamestown glassmaker in 1621, twelve-year-old Merry uncovers a case of sabotage.

"In fifty years, Myrra will be free. Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract-- butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles. But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated-- and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret...

On a small farm in 19th-century Ohio, Ann dreams of a marriage proposal from her poetic suitor, Eli. When she travels to Pittsburgh with her father on business, Will shows her that nobility is more than fine words. When the Millers return to Ohio and their ministry there, Will resolves to find them at any cost. Will Ann be waiting?

In Joseon Dynasty-era Korea, sixteen-year-old Seol, an indentured servant within the police bureau, becomes entangled in a politically-charged investigation into the murder of a noblewoman.

Seven-year-old Alice Cole travels with her family from 1756 London to the New World, dreaming of a big house in Philadelphia and a new life. Her mother and brothers die on board and are buried at sea; the ship docks in Boston rather than Philadelphia; there, her father indentures her for 11 years without a backward glance. Alice does housework for the family of Simeon Morton of Dedham, in whose house she is treated almost like a second daughter, becoming...