Refusing to be civilized by Southern society or cowed by his drunken father’s lashings, young Huckleberry Finn decides he has only one option left: fake his own death and hop a raft down the Mississippi River. Instead of carrying him far from trouble, though, Huck’s raft delivers him to a place of moral uncertainty.

Mark Twain unwinds Huck’s harrowing journey to manhood with satirical wit, revealing the troubled history of the American South, where slavery held sway long after the Civil War ended. Huck’s relationship with runaway slave Jim forces him to confront his beliefs about friendship and freedom.