At the Missouri frontier town, on the banks of the Mississippi River, the intrigue revolves around two boys—one, born into slavery, with 1/32 black ancestry; the other, white, born to be the master of the house. The two boys, who look similar, are switched at infancy and each grows into the other's social role.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He is best known for his two novels – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but his satirical stories and travel books are also widely popular. Twain's wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned him praise from critics and peers. He was lauded as the greatest American humorist of his age.