Judge Bellingham sends Elsbeth alone into the bombarded city streets to find a doctor for his gout.

Shube leads Elsbeth to the rooftop at sunrise, revealing Patriot cannons secretly placed on Dorchester Heights overnight.

Elsbeth's father walks her home from the sail loft, scolds her for the reckless visit, and forbids her from returning.

Pappa's note orders Elsbeth to evacuate with him to Scotland; she hides in the barn hayloft overnight to thwart his plan.

On Evacuation Day, Elsbeth wakes to find the British fleet gone, but her father never returns to claim her.

Elsbeth discovers two smallpox-infected men at her father's boardinghouse; one is already dead and the other is barely alive.

Elsbeth secures a position with Mister Pike by lying that her father departed on a long whaling voyage.

The Pike family arrives from the countryside with the stern housekeeper Widow Nash and wealthy ward Hannah Sparhawk.

Captain Hunter reveals the Pikes' business is ruined and demands a three-quarters partnership in exchange for covering their debts.

Thomas Pike argues fiercely with his father and runs away to sea with Captain Hunter on the privateer ship Defiance.

The town authorizes mass smallpox inoculations; Elsbeth's account of losing her own family to the disease convinces a hesitant Missus Pike to agree.

Hannah encounters women from her hometown at the Declaration of Independence celebration who reveal her grandmother died months earlier.

Widow Nash intercepts Elsbeth's letter from her father and falsely reports her to the Committee of Safety as a spy.

Hannah contracts smallpox in the dangerous natural way and dies with Elsbeth and Nyott holding her hands.

A prisoner exchange ship arrives from Halifax; Elsbeth follows a familiar voice through a snowstorm and is reunited with her father.

During the Patriot bombardment of Boston, thirteen-year-old kitchen maid Elsbeth Culpepper is thrust into the dangerous city streets and set on a path of survival. After her father disappears on Evacuation Day, Elsbeth secures a new position with a Patriot family by lying about her father's whereabouts, and must navigate a chaotic household upended by the scheming Captain Hunter. As Boston undergoes a citywide smallpox inoculation and the Declaration of Independence is celebrated, Hannah Sparhawk discovers that Hunter has been deceiving her for months about her grandmother's death. Elsbeth's own fragile situation collapses when a jealous housekeeper falsely reports her as a spy, forcing her to fight for her place in the only home she has. Despite surviving the interrogation, Elsbeth must endure the devastating loss of Hannah before the novel reaches its emotional climax: a miraculous reunion with her father, who was kidnapped rather than abandoning her.

The main story of revolution, survival, and reunion.

Elsbeth meets Nyott Doubt at the British military hospital and persuades him to accompany her and treat Judge Bellingham.

Elsbeth arrives at her father's sail loft with news of the Patriot cannons, forcing her to feign loyalty to the king around angry Loyalist coworkers.

Elsbeth returns to the smallpox-ridden boardinghouse, brings water to the survivor Billy Rawdon, and decides to stay and care for him.

Elsbeth asks Shube to deliver Mister Pike's business letters and secretly search for any news of her missing father.

Mister Pike receives a letter from his wife refusing to return to Boston; Elsbeth secretly retrieves it from the trash and burns it to spare him.

Mister Pike and Elsbeth walk to the ruins of his former mansion; he retrieves only a small doll from the wreckage for his daughter Tabitha.

Hannah teaches Elsbeth to milk the family cow in exchange for a diversion that lets her slip back into the house unseen.

After Widow Nash banishes Elsbeth to the cold attic, Hannah secretly sends her a warm blanket through the Pike children.

Elsbeth uses a clever mock investigation to resolve the broken chamber pot dispute between the Pike brothers, impressing Hannah.

Elsbeth discovers the Pike household stores are dangerously low and overhears Mister and Missus Pike confess the family is completely broke.

Hannah arranges for Elsbeth to be promoted to her personal maid, a move that openly enrages Widow Nash.

Elsbeth meets Billy Rawdon at the Sign of the Wolf tavern; he gives her Pappa's sailmaker's palm and demands two stolen shirts in return.

Hannah confronts Missus Pike about Captain Hunter's deception; Pike admits she knew of the grandmother's death but was forbidden to reveal it.

Elsbeth breaks into Captain Hunter's house through a window and steals two account books covering the years of Hannah's guardianship.

Elsbeth carefully sews a blue silk shroud for Hannah's body and follows the coffin to the graveyard alongside Nyott Doubt.

Beyond the headline events of war and reunion, Elsbeth's survival depends on a web of alliances carefully built and tested within the Pike household. She recruits medical apprentice Nyott Doubt early on, befriends Hannah Sparhawk through a practical exchange of favors, and watches the Pike family's comfortable life collapse under the weight of Captain Hunter's scheming. The domestic sphere becomes a battlefield of its own, with Widow Nash entrenching her authority and Elsbeth earning small but meaningful victories, including a promotion to personal maid. Hannah's confrontation with Missus Pike over her grandmother's death deepens the bonds between the young women, even as the threat of Hunter looms over everything. After Hannah dies, Elsbeth performs one final act of devotion by sewing her a silk shroud and following the coffin to the graveyard, honoring the sisterhood they built together.

The relationships and struggles woven through the household.

Nyott Doubt reveals in the hospital supply room that he once apprenticed under the deceased Patriot leader Doctor Warren.

Elsbeth finds a doctor for Billy Rawdon but is barred from re-entering the contaminated boardinghouse, leaving her with nowhere to go.

Shube is detained overnight by a constable; Elsbeth lies to a furious Mister Pike to prevent Shube from being dismissed.

Elsbeth refuses Widow Nash's demand to scrub an already clean floor, and Missus Pike publicly sides with Elsbeth against the housekeeper.

Shube reappears in Boston working as an army errand runner and warns Elsbeth he must soon leave to build coastal fortifications.

Captain Hunter presents Hannah with a forged letter and her grandmother's ruby earrings, falsely claiming the old woman is recovering.

Elsbeth and Hannah form a secret alliance on the rooftop after watching a coffin carried through the dark street below them.

Elsbeth stops at the post office hoping for a letter from her father, but the clerk refuses to search the unsorted pile of unclaimed mail.

Hannah gives Elsbeth a sealed note intended for Nyott; Elsbeth withholds it and uses it as leverage to negotiate help for Shube's future employment.

Billy Rawdon arrives at the barn at dawn and trades Pappa's needle case—containing Elsbeth's mother's embroidery needle—for two stolen shirts.

Billy Rawdon visits the Pike barn and charms Widow Nash with a gift of stolen onions, insinuating himself dangerously close to the household.

The Committee of Safety interrogates Elsbeth on charges of spying; she successfully defends herself and is released with her father's letter in hand.

Billy Rawdon ambushes Elsbeth in the barn with a knife; she invents a false story about hidden treasure in Hunter's house to lure him into a trap.

Shube reveals his regiment will march for Canada at first light; he and Elsbeth share a final emotional farewell at Boston Common and he promises to learn to write.

Elsbeth declines the Pikes' offer of a permanent housekeeper position in favor of pursuing a seamstress apprenticeship and a self-determined future.

Elsbeth's story is shaped by a series of pivotal moments in which a single choice or revelation alters the course of events for everyone around her. From learning that Nyott trained under a Patriot hero to forging a covert rooftop alliance with Hannah, she builds her survival on careful decisions under pressure. The theft and recovery of her father's needle case, which holds her mother's embroidery needle, marks an emotional turning point between her past losses and her drive to endure. After the Committee of Safety interrogation exposes Widow Nash's treachery, Elsbeth shifts from defending herself to actively pursuing justice, luring Billy Rawdon into a trap with a fabricated story. The pool closes on two defining choices: a heartbreaking farewell to Shube as he marches to war, and Elsbeth's refusal of a safe, permanent position in favor of the uncertain freedom of a seamstress apprenticeship.