Reed's satirical and often anachronistic story Flight to Canada is a Civil War era story (mixed into modern times), focusing on the conflict between Arthur Swille and his slave, Raven Quickskill. Raven has escaped her slavery and is living in Buffalo, New York. Because it is the 1860's, Raven needs to make it all the way to Canada before she is truly safe. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, Swille is dedicated to finding Raven and returning him to slavery.
Raven left Swille with a poem for which he received $200 and afforded his airplane flight north (yes, airplanes in the 1860s). However, the poem details how Raven poisoned Swille's bourbon. The document becomes so widely known that ultimately it works against Raven, because it makes him easier to trace. Swille is an extraordinarily wealthy and powerful Southerner, so the traps to catch Raven are impressive. He is so rich that Abraham Lincoln one asked him for money. A man shoots the poisoned bourbon before it can hurt anyone. Lincoln suddenly realizes that slavery is a serious obstacle to peace, so he decides (instead of letting Swille keep his slaves for supporting Lincoln's war efforts) to free the slaves. Swille takes this personally, and he begins the fictional assassination efforts that end in Lincoln's death.
Meanwhile, Raven evades Swille's men up north. Swille's 'Nebraska Tracers' have cornered Raven, but he escapes through a window. Just before Raven finally finds his way into Canada, he meets Princess Quaw Quaw at a party. He and the princess have a romantic history. They reunite in the basement while watching television (yes, television in the 1860s). The program? Our American Cousin, live from the Ford Theater (the play where Lincoln died in real life). The couple make love and then witness Lincoln's assassination on live television. The omen bodes poorly for Raven, since Swille is responsible for Lincoln's assassination (in the book at least).
What Raven doesn't know, however, is that Swille's life is falling apart. Mitchell, Swille's son, visits him from the spirit world to tell Mrs. Swille that Swille himself was responsible for Mitchell's death. Swille apparently also donated his own son's skull to a museum for a tax write-off. Next of the ghost visitors is Swille's sister. She tells everyone that while she was alive, she and her brother used to sleep together.
Raven and Quaw Quaw board a yacht that is going from America to Canada, but in a twist of fate, Quaw Quaw's own husband, Yankee Jack, owns the boat. In a kind of final boss fight, Raven fights Jack, but eventually, they talk things through and they realize that they can ally forces. Raven realizes that Yankee Jack is the new super-villain of America. To get into Canada, the two walk across a tightrope stretched above Niagara Falls, backwards. Turns out, Canada is as broken and backwards as America. Uncle Robin (Uncle Tom for all intents and purposes) inherits Swille's property when he dies at the end of the novel. From his newfound wealth, he asks Raven to come back to the South to write his story instead of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
