The son of a free black father and a slave mother (making him a slave as well), Gabriel loves to help his father, one of the best horse trainers in Kentucky, care for the thoroughbred racehorses on Master Giles''s farm. But the violence of war disrupts the familiar routine of daily life on the farm. When Gabriel''s father enlists in a Colored Battalion to help the Union Army and earn enough money to purchase freedom for his wife and son, Gabriel is both proud and worried. But the absence of his father brings the arrival of Mr. Newcastle, a white horse trainer with harsh, cruel methods for handling horses...and people.