Orphaned at the age of 9 in Stockholm, Sweden, Jacob is taken by an ill-tempered uncle on a merchant ship bound for London. He survives a shipwreck en route that leaves him homeless and, once again, abandoned. This time on the streets of a Dickensian London. Unable to speak English, he struggles, often stealing to survive. In desperation, he lies about his age to sign up with the Hudson's Bay Fur Company as an indentured laborer. Certainly,...