While orphan Johnny Tremain is apprenticed to silversmith Emphraim Lapham, he violates the Sabbath laws by working on Sunday. He suffers an injury to his hand that ends his career as an artisan. He then goes to the home of rich merchant Jonathon Lyte with a silver cup given to him by his dead mother to prove than Lyte is his uncle. The merchant accuses him of having stolen it, and Johnny is falsely accused of being a fraud and thief. After being exonerated he is befriended by Rab, a young man who introduces him to the Sons of Liberty, a group of colonists who meet secretly to plot strategy against what they consider tyrannical English rule. Young Johnny becomes involved with patriots like Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and James Otis and participates in the Boston Tea Party uprising.