Two boys-one running away from home and the other towards freedom-find their lives intertwined in a way that only brothers could understand. Their journey during the beginnings of the Civil War takes them from Mississippi to New Orleans, Charleston, and ultimately to the island of Nantucket in the North. There, they are witnesses to "the greatest meeting of minds in the history of the world." In December of 1862, a politician gathers together a group including a writer, a scientist, and an economist to chart the future of a fractured nation. The two boys soon detect, however, a hidden conspiracy that threatens the success of the Christmas Meeting.