Quincy Drew and Jason O’Rourke, a pair of friends and con men—the former white, the latter a Northern-born free Black man— travel from town to town in the pre–Civil War American West. In their scam, Quincy sells Jason into slavery, frees him, and the two move on to the next town of suckers . . . until a con gone wrong leads Jason into real danger.

The story revolves around a colt born in Kentucky and named "Blue Grass". and the training of the colt to win the Kentuck Derby. and how all of that affected the lives, fortunes and, relationships and romances of the people associated with the colt's race-track career.