The year is 1864. England is at peace - but across the Atlantic Ocean a bloody civil war is being fought between the North and the South and untold thousands are dying on the battlefield. In Portsmouth, the far distant war seems not to matter - until a humble warehouse clerk, Silas Trumble (Robert James), finds himself caught up in a chilling conspiracy and jailed for a crime he did not commit. His daughter Abigail (Julia Lewis) fights to prove his innocence and enlists the help of street urchins led by Gegor (Jack Wild) and William Sedgwick (Steven Grives), a mysterious journalist with a strange secret. Together, they unmask a sinister plot that could well drag Britain into the American Civil War and change the course of history. Made by Southern Television for the ITV Network, first broadcast on British television between 31st December 1979 and 4th February 1980.