The story opens with the narrator, Florens, addressing the Blacksmith and telling him not to be afraid of what she is going to tell him. She then highlights the importance of knowing how to read signs and asks the Blacksmith whether he is able to read them.
Florens then mentions her mother, a slave on the D'Ortega plantation, and her own fascination with shoes. Florens remembers how she used to try and convince her mother to let her wear shoes even though the shoes she found were broken and old. Later in life, Florens is given a pair of old boots and she stuffs them with corn so they will fit her better. Florens was taught to read and write in secret by a Revered, who also baptized her. Florens mentions Lina, a Native woman working on the same plantation as her and how they are extremely close to one another. Florens thinks her mother did want her, as she offered Florens in her stead to “Sir,” or Jacob Vaark. Florens was then taken to the colony of New York, where she began working on Jacob’s farm and met Lina, Sorrow, and Mistress.
The second chapter tells the story of Jacob, who owned two African slaves and one Native American slave but generally considered slavery abhorrent and was thus a kind master. Jacob was an orphan from the Netherlands, but managed to accrue some wealth through trading and his own land through a deceased uncle’s inheritance.
Jacob travels to Maryland, invited to dinner by D’Ortega, a plantation owner who lives on a plantation named "Jublio.” D’Ortega tells Jacob that the some of his slaves died and his new cargo of slaves died as well. Because of that, D’Ortega asks Jacob for more money and more time to pay the money he’d already lent him.
Jacob looks at D’Ortega’s children and thinks sadly about how all his sons died in infancy and his daughter when she was five. For a moment, Jacob is jealous of the man before him but then reaches the conclusion that he is happy with his wife and would not want anything else from life.
D’Ortega takes Jacob outside and tells him to choose from his slaves as a form of payment. At first, Jacob refuses to make the trade but he gives in and selects a woman. The woman begs him to take her young daughter instead, and he agrees, thinking that the presence of the young girl will make his wife happy.
Jacob reaches a tavern. He likes being a farmer but it did not bring him the profit he hoped it would, so, listening to a loquacious man at the tavern brag of how easy to was to make money from sugar plantations in the West Indies, he starts to consider a new investment. He tells himself it will be easier to be involved in slavery if he doesn’t have to see it right in front of him.
The third chapter takes place sometime after the end of the second chapter and is told once more from Florens’ perspective. The house Jacob dreamt of building was almost finished but Jacob became sick with the pox and died.
Soon after Jacob dies, Rebekka becomes ill as well and Florens is sent to find the Blacksmith, who can help Rebekka get better. Florens travels with indentured servants on a wagon until at one point she flees to the woods.
The fourth chapter is told from Lina’s perspective. Lina thinks about the house and how in order to make space for it, Jacob had to cut down many trees. Lina saw this as a grave mistake and she believes that Jacob’s illness was just the universe punishing him for his deeds. Lina also thinks about the Blacksmith and Florens and how Florens was attracted almost immediately to the free Black man. Lina sensed the danger in his presence.
Lina remembers how her village was wiped out by smallpox and how everyone except her and two other little boys died. White soldiers saved Lina and the boys and Lina was sent to live with a Presbyterian family, who tried to Christianize her and eventually abandoned her as well. Lina was then bought by Jacob when she was 14 and brought to the farm. At first, Lina and Rebekka did not get along but they soon became friends. When Sorrow was brought to the farm, they both disliked her almost immediately since she could do almost nothing around the house. Now that Rebekka is sick, Lina is the one who takes care of her and the farm.
Lina remembers when Florens was brought to the farm and how the two connected almost immediately. Florens wanted a mother and Lina wanted a child, so they became inseparable. Lina tried to keep Florens away from the Blacksmith in an effort to protect her, and now she is wondering whether Florens will return after finding him.
In the next chapter, Florens is alone, thinking about her life on the farm and about the Blacksmith. Florens remembers how Rebekka hit Sorrow one time but despite this, she still sees her mistress as a kind and good woman. She also thinks about how the Blacksmith makes her feel safe.
On her sickbed, Rebekka is immersed in her memories. She thinks about how she came to America from London and how her father agreed to send her to marry a man she’d never met. Rebekka’s parents were fiercely religious and her mother warned her to keep away from the “savage” Natives. Rebekka also remembers the executions she witnessed as a child and how they traumatized her.
Rebekka admits that she likes her life better in America than the life she had in Europe. The trip to America was an interesting one, as Rebekka was quartered with the other low-class women—servants, prostitutes, and thieves. Despite this, Rebekka got along well with the other women on board, all of whom sustained each other with compassion and wit throughout the long and arduous journey.
Rebekka remembers that when she first saw Jacob she was impressed by his physical appearance and how gentle he was with her. The two married and soon Rebekka became pregnant. Their sons all died in infancy and Jacob began spending more and more time away from the farm, trading and making money.
Rebekka thinks about religion and how it influenced her life. She was forbidden by her childhood religion to express grief when her children died but she was unable to respect this when her daughter died at the age of 5. Rebekka did not find any consolation in the Christian faith.
When Rebekka wakes up from her slumber, she asks Lina to give her a mirror. When she looks in it, she is able to see how the illness disfigured her.
Rebekka thinks about Florens and how the Blacksmith is now her only hope. Rebekka hopes that Florens will be able to find the Blacksmith and convince him to come back with her.
The next chapter is told from Florens’ perspective. She thinks about the first time she and the Blacksmith were intimate and how Lina told her about her former lover, who used to beat her and abuse her. Lina tries to warn Florens about the dangers of getting involved with the Blacksmith but she refuses to listen.
After about two days of walking, Florens reaches a cottage where she meets Widow Ealing, who takes Florens in and gives her food. Widow has a daughter and Florens quickly notices the cuts on the young girl’s legs. The next day, a group of men and women and a child come to the house and Widow claims that her daughter is not a demon since she can bleed. The people are shocked by Florens’ dark skin and inspect her body to see if she is the Devil’s minion. They are unsure, and decide to return the next day. Daughter Jane helps Florens escape, telling her she is glad that Florens distracted them all from her.
The next chapter is told from Sorrow’s perspective. She reveals that she lived all her life on a ship until the ship foundered and she was the only one left alive. She was later found by a sawyer and his wife, who took care of her for a time. Sorrow is unable to perform the tasks she is given so the lumberjack gives her away to Jacob. By the time she was given to Jacob, Sorrow was already pregnant. Sorrow refused to talk with anyone else except Twin, a hallucination. When Sorrow gave birth, Lina told her that the baby was already dead but Sorrow believed the child was born living.
Sorrow remembers the moment when the Blacksmith came to them and how he helped save her life when she got sick.
Sorrow describes the Blacksmith returning to the farm and taking care of Rebekka. He is alone, though, and Lina asks him time and time again about Florens and her whereabouts. Around the same time, Sorrow goes into labor but she decides to have her baby on her own, with only a bit of help from Willard and Scully. Sorrow gives birth to a healthy baby girl and soon after she has the baby, Twin disappears. Sorrow also changes her name to Complete, feeling as if she is now a complete woman after having her baby.
The ninth chapter is presented from Florens’ perspective. She found the Blacksmith, who was happy to see Florens and agreed to ride as fast as he could to help Rebekka. He asks, however, for Florens to stay behind and take care of a young orphaned Black boy, a small child found in the back of a cart. Florens notes that he does not kiss her before leaving the house.
Florens is worried that the Blacksmith will choose the young boy, Malaik, over herself and that he will abandon her just like her mother abandoned her. Florens ignores the small boy for an entire day until she notices that her boots are gone. She then takes the boy’s doll and puts it on a shelf and the boy starts to cry almost immediately. Florens grabs the boy’s arm to make him quiet and during the altercation, the boy’s arm is broken. The boy passes out from the pain and in that moment the Blacksmith arrives home. Seeing the scene in front of him, he pushes Florens out of the way and rushes to take care of the boy. He then slaps her and tells her that she will return to Rebekka since she is a slave incapable of thinking for herself.
The tenth chapter is told from the perspective of Willard and Scully, two indentured servants who worked on the farm. The two men helped Rebekka bury the body of her husband and then helped her repair the farm. The two men notice that the women on the farm are all unfocused and are different from the way they were when Jacob was still alive. Florens returned to the farm but she is no longer the happy girl she once was. Rebekka became obsessed with religion.
Willard was supposed to attain freedom at the end of his contract but more years were added to it due to petty crimes. Willard became good friends with Scully, another indentured servant, and the two were frequently loaned to Jacob by their master.
Scully sees the differences in the women. Despite his apparent interest in women, though, the narrator implies that Scully is gay and that he was involved in a gay relationship with a clergyman in his youth. Scully and Willard were also occasionally intimate.
The men notice that Rebekka becomes crueler towards her servants, beating Sorrow and putting up announcements about her decision to sell Florens. Scully thinks how at first, he saw Rebekka and her servants as family but now he realized that the sense of family was false.
The next chapter is told from Florens’ perspective. She has returned to Rebekka, but is fierce and untouchable now. She spends her nights in Jacob’s unfinished grand house, carving words into the wood and hoping that the Blacksmith will one day read them.
Chapter 12 is told from Florens’ mother’s perspective, a woman captured in Africa, sent across the Atlantic in the hellish Middle Passage, and sold to Senhor in the New World. Senhor raped her often and she did not want the same fate for her young daughter, so when Jacob came to the plantation, she saw her chance to save Florens. The novel ends with Florens’ mother praying that her daughter will one day forgive her and understand why she had to act the way she did.
