Washington Black is a slave on a plantation on Barbados. When the old master dies a new and brutal master arrives to take over, and brings with him his brother, who takes Washington on as ballast for his experimental flying machine. Discovering that Washington has a flair for science and for art, he becomes an assistant, and after a bloody event, the two flee in the flying machine. So begins a long journey of the mind as much as the body as Washington must survive as a runaway slave, but struggles to do more than survive, to use his brains and his talents to leave his mark on the world, and to come to terms with the horrors and losses of his childhood.