'There's a place the slaves been whisperin' around called Canada. The law don't allow no slavery there. They say you follow the North Star, and when you step onto this land you are free ...' Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day she spends huddled in the trader's cart travelling south, or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her friend Liza may reach some day. So when workers from the 'underground railway' offer to help the two girls, they are ready. But the slave catchers and their dogs will soon be after them...