Rachel Marsh is an indentured servant for John and Abigail Adams, who have just moved to Boston from Braintree, Massachusetts. One morning, Rachel and her friend Jane (a maid in a different household) take the Adamses’ children to see a lion, and Rachel notices that everyone, regardless of class, seems to be fraught with purpose. When she asks Jane why, Jane explains that people are preparing for rebellion. Between the recently passed Townshend Acts taxing imports to the British colonies and a newly arrived ship just sitting in the harbor, tensions are high, and Boston is “like a keg of powder about to explode right now” (4).

Jane advises Rachel to be ready to choose sides—either the Crown or the Patriots. Rachel has little use for the Patriots, who seem to be little more than an angry gang that spews treason in the name of wanting “liberty.” Instead, she believes in John Adams’s abilities as a lawyer. She admires his office full of books and believes that by reading his books, he can solve any problem there is. Rachel also admires John’s wife Abigail because she’s an educated woman, and Rachel hopes to find a place in the world where people believe what she has to say is worthwhile.