Summary:

Anna Louise is a simple, though intelligent woman-if one dares to call her that-who does not take many chances. Members of her species are called the Servants; her race lives to serve greater beings. Mostly, the Servants work for humans as slaves. Anna Louise spends the first part of her life serving a family on a lake. Suddenly, they find themselves poor and have to sell her to another home. When she questions them, they frown upon her and do not even consider keeping her. Depressed, lonely, and fatigued she reaches the House of Huse. As a huge house, she fades into the background. To her own dismay the other Servants keep to themselves. She settles into her path of life, not hoping or dreaming. She exists, day to day, without truly living. Her hope suffers more and more each hour she lives in the House of Huse.

Only when she meets another Servant, Marcus, does Anna Louise begin to question her ways of life. She runs away with him with the promises of changes. Swept into the sweet possibility of freedom, she lives in the woods with Marcus and travels from town to town where she watches Marcus preach his words of rights and freedom. She is unsure whether she truly believes in his cause, but she finds that every day she grows more and more fond of the strange Servant. He is a fighter, a rarity among the Servants. However, she has already become jaded with time. Anna Louise runs around the world with Marcus until she is given the hardest choice of her life. However, she knows she is not strong enough to be the leader of the Servants. Is she willing to give up everything she worked for so he can succeed?