High Hopes and Dreams begins where On the High Seas ends. It's the first week of November, 1851, and the ship carrying the O'Donnell family, and about 120 Irish immigrants, have braved the two-month voyage from Derry, Ireland. The ship has entered its final leg - traversing the Chesapeake Bay and landing at a wharf in Baltimore.
Uncharacteristically cold weather has stifled most commerce and life in general, limiting nearly all outdoor movement and postponing the high hopes and dreams of the immigrant families. The newly extended O'Donnell family is offered lodging as welcomed guests of the Archbishop in the rectory at the Baltimore Basilica.
The O'Donnell's struggle to protect the cabin boy, a fourteen year old child, whom they helped to escape the bonds of slavery to the ship's captain. Slave patrols, a bumbling pair of Bavarian immigrant brothers and others are attempting to recapture him and return him to the ship's captain who claims that he is the boy's rightful owner.