Isabel leaves Curzon, taking their shared money, to search for her lost sister Ruth.

Curzon saves Eben from a redcoat by hurling a rock to ruin the soldier's aim.

Caleb bows to Curzon in thanks for saving Eben, and Curzon enlists in the Continental Army.

Burns and Curzon nearly come to blows after Burns calls him a racial slur and demands his boots.

The Colonial Army makes camp at Valley Forge amid bitter cold, near starvation, and dwindling supplies.

Caleb is struck in the ankle by an errant axe swing and dies of fever during the night.

Burns and two accomplices ambush Curzon at night and beat him until he surrenders his boots.

Curzon recognizes his former owner Bellingham among the Continental Congress members arriving at Valley Forge.

Bellingham reveals at Washington's headquarters that he still legally owns Curzon and refuses to free him.

A military court-martial rules against Curzon two to one, declaring him Bellingham's legal property.

Curzon arrives at Moore Hall and discovers that Isabel is also enslaved there as Bellingham's maid.

Bellingham tells Curzon that any punishment Curzon deserves will be carried out on Isabel instead.

Eben finds Curzon during a camp visit and shares his plan to help Curzon escape Bellingham.

Isabel flees with Gideon in the night but returns after discovering he has been a British spy all along.

Isabel knocks Bellingham unconscious with a shovel, and Curzon and Isabel flee with the marching army.

Curzon Smith is a runaway slave who enlists in the Continental Army after Isabel abandons him to search for her sister. He survives the brutal winter encampment at Valley Forge, enduring racism and starvation alongside his fellow soldiers. His fragile freedom is shattered when his former owner Bellingham arrives with the Continental Congress and reclaims him through a military court-martial. Enslaved at Moore Hall alongside Isabel, Curzon must plot their escape while Bellingham uses Isabel as a hostage to control his behavior. With Eben's help and Isabel's courage, the two finally overpower Bellingham and flee with the marching army toward an uncertain but self-determined future.

The core story of Curzon's fight for freedom at Valley Forge.

Trumbull fires Curzon without paying him; Curzon steals spoons and shoe buckles from Trumbull as payback.

Eben shoots the redcoat in the stomach and the wounded soldier dies slowly and in agony.

Curzon searches the dead soldier's belongings and finds a shattered compass among his things.

Curzon wakes in the rebel camp the next morning to find his father's treasured hat is gone.

Eben secretly hides Trumbull's stolen goods in his own bag to protect Curzon from the accusation.

Curzon and Eben witness the surrender of a British general and his entire army at the river.

Curzon finds two enslaved people, Bett and Baumfree, while searching for food in Colonel Hardenburgh's kitchen.

Colonel Hardenburgh mistakes Curzon for a slave and demands that Eben remove him from the house.

Caleb tells the unit their meat has spoiled; the starving soldiers begin chanting "No meat! No meat!"

A washerwoman caught stealing food is banished from camp and the soldiers are ordered not to help her.

Eben confesses to Curzon that he and Burns had been sneaking out to steal food from nearby farms.

Sylvanus tells the soldiers that Valley Forge is a forge that tests what each man is truly made of.

Curzon meets the old toothless cook at Moore Hall, who deduces that he has feelings for Isabel.

At a parade celebrating France entering the war, Curzon's company leaves a gap in their formation for him.

Isabel writes forged letters to draw Bellingham away from Moore Hall and to expose Gideon as a spy.

This pool captures the vivid secondary events that define the texture of Curzon's world, from his theft of Trumbull's spoons to the horror of watching a man die slowly from a musket wound. Arriving in the rebel camp, Curzon and Eben witness the dignified surrender of British forces before the army begins its grim march toward Valley Forge. There, the soldiers face a punishing existence of spoiled meat, banished women, and the bitter ingenuity of cooking firecake from flour and creek water. Enslaved inside Moore Hall, Curzon finds small moments of solidarity alongside the grinding daily humiliations of serving Bellingham and the congressmen. The pool closes with Isabel's audacious act of forging letters that sets their escape into motion.

The battles, hardships, and smaller moments that shaped Curzon's journey.

Curzon follows Eben to the rebel camp and is publicly accused of theft by Trumbull before Sergeant Caleb.

Curzon and Eben have a fierce argument after Hardenburgh's party over the hypocrisy of slavery in a war for freedom.

Eben and Curzon cook a stolen pumpkin over a fire together and Eben apologizes for his earlier callousness.

At Caleb's burial, Eben tears a sleeve from his shirt and lays the cloth across his uncle's face.

Reilly is condemned to hang for attempted desertion, but the frayed execution rope snaps on the first attempt.

Burns is promoted to sergeant by the new captain after spending weeks flattering his way into favor.

After Burns steals his boots, Curzon's friends agree to share their own boots in rotation to prevent his frostbite.

Bellingham invites Curzon to Washington's headquarters under the pretense of giving honest testimony about conditions at camp.

Curzon spits in Bellingham's face after the court-martial declares him property and is knocked unconscious.

Isabel tells Curzon she cannot escape because Bellingham has locked a heavy iron collar around her neck.

Curzon overhears Continental Congress members mock John Laurens' proposal to free and enlist enslaved people.

Eben returns Curzon's compass and reveals the soldiers had signed a petition for his release that the captain burned.

Bellingham wrenches Isabel's wrist as punishment after Curzon accidentally drops a plate at dinner.

Isabel shaves Curzon's face and he tells her his name comes from his father's Portuguese word for heart.

Curzon sees no powder on Bellingham's lips or shirt and realizes the pistol aimed at him is unloaded.

This pool traces the pivotal decisions and revelations that define Curzon's character and drive the story forward. Early tensions crystallize when Eben and Curzon's friendship is shattered by an argument about the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom while keeping slaves, only to be slowly rebuilt around a shared pumpkin and a genuine apology. The deaths of Caleb and the near-execution of Reilly force the soldiers to reckon with survival, justice, and what the camp is truly forging them into. Recaptured and enslaved, Curzon uncovers the full horror of Isabel's iron collar and learns through overheard conversations just how little the men in power care about their freedom. The pool closes at the moment Curzon spots no gunpowder on Bellingham's lips and understands, with sudden clarity, that the pistol aimed at him is empty.