THE BOY OCTAVIAN IS RAISED IN A GAUNT HOUSE by men engaged in mysterious pursuits. It is revealed that the men of the house are philosophers pursuing subtle knowledge of the arts and sciences, calling themselves The Novanglian College of Lucidity: Novanglian, for the house is located in the New England Colonies, in the town of Boston; Lucidity, for it is an age when Enlightenment illumines every corner of the unknown. The eccentricities of that College are many; the boy Octavian’s mother will not tell him of why he must live there, or why she is constrained as often she is. The reader is made acquainted with two of Octavian’s friends, a slave named Pro Bono and Octavian’s tutor, Dr. Trefusis. Through hints by these savant gentlemen and examination of his circumstances, Octavian realizes the nature of his situation: He is the subject of a great experiment, in which the scholars of the College of Lucidity seek to determine whether the capacities of the African are equal to those of the European. Accordingly, Octavian has received instruction in all of the gentle arts, in the deepest sciences, and is an excellent Latinist. The College of Lucidity having suffered some financial embarrassment, Pro Bono is given to a potential investor as a gift. As the Colonies resist taxation by the Crown, the tumults of war press themselves upon the College. Adding to the distresses of the age, the smallpox threatens the beleaguered city. Fearing disease, a revolt by the slaves, and a myriad of other destructive eventualities, the scholars of the College flee Boston and establish quarantine in the countryside, where they inoculate all of their party against the pox. Something goes amiss with the inoculation, and several members of the party suffer the full agonies of the disease. The disease proves fatal to Octavian’s mother. Dumbfounded by the scene of horror he discovers when he seeks to pay his last respects to her, Octavian flees the College of Lucidity. He takes refuge with the rebels, aiding in the fortification of the countryside as Boston, now a fastness for the King’s Army, is besieged by the Patriots. One of the Patriots, without knowledge, betrays our hero to an agent of the College of Lucidity, and the boy is again captured. Taken back to the house in the countryside, he defies his former masters. With the aid of his tutor, Dr. Trefusis, he escapes, leaving the masters of the College drugged and insensate. Dr. Trefusis and Octavian, now under fear of a sentence of death, flee towards the city and the King’s camp, where they might find safety. Octavian muses on who — the King’s forces or the rebels’ — offers the greater hope of freedom to him and his fellow Africans, embonded in the New World.