This novel tells an epic story spanning several generations that focus on various members of interconnected family lines. The chronological origination point of the story—which is told in a non-linear fashion that bounces back and forth between time periods—begins with an act patricide by Micco, a young boy with a Creek mother and Scottish father. Micco’s killing of his father is an act deemed necessary for the purpose of saving the life of his mother’s brother. Micco eventually exiles from his tribe and becomes a successful farmer until the day that a white man named Samuel Pinchard enters his life. Before too long, Pinchard owns the farm both in land and in deed and neither Micco nor his descendants have legal standing to mount a challenge.
Meanwhile, a mother and daughter are abducted as part of the African slave trade and make their way to a farm in Georgia. An offspring of the daughter named Beauty is purchased by Samuel Pinchard and rechristened Ahgayuh—more commonly referred to as Aggie. Pinchard’s farm has become a full-scale plantation known as Wood Place. In addition to being a planation, it is a house of horrors for young female slaves who become little more than sex slaves feeding Samuel’s incessant appetite. Eventually, in fact, he begins purchasing young available young women on the market solely for the purpose of being held captive in a cabin exclusively used for sexual assaults. Things become untenable for Aggie when her daughter and an illegitimate son of Samuel born to one of his rape victims fall in love, marry and produce twin girls, one of which Samuel finds too irresistible to control his urges. Learning the sordid details of his nefarious plans for her granddaughter, Aggie devises a plan that will allow mother, father and both twins to escape the plantation, but in the end it is only Nick, the father, who succeeds in getting away.
This horrific backstory becomes the foundation upon which the “modern-day” story (taking place in the 20th century) is constructed. A young woman named Ailey is the latest descendant of the life of Aggie lives in an unidentified city, but recalls with fondness trips to her mother’s home in Georgia, site of Samuel Pinchard’s plantation. Much of her story is a typical coming-of-age biography. Transferring to a mostly white private school forces her to face racism in a more direct way than before. A summer romance in George opens her up to more knowledge of the dark side of her familial history than she knew about before. Along the way to attending a black college in Georgia she experiences sexual awakening and learns of her sister’s battle with drug addiction. While attending college she faces gender discrimination, black-on-black racism, and sexual assault at the hands of a boyfriend. Eventually, Lydia’s continuing emotional problems result in the revelation that both she and Ailey were abused by their grandfather on their father’s side. Lydia eventually relapses and dies of an overdose.
In an attempt to rein in Ailey’s disconnection from the world in the light of this tragedy, kindly Uncle Root secures her a position as a research assistant at the college for a professor who is conducting a study of the single largest slave auction ever recorded in U.S. history. Her imagination fired by her participation; Ailey decides to pursue an advanced degree in history herself. Her continuing research will ultimately lead her directly to the journals of Samuel Pinchard. One of the entries in that journal notes only that on July 10, 1859 there was a fire in his rape cabin—identified by him only as “Left Cabin” in which two girls perished: Rabbit and Leena. Rabbit was the other twin granddaughter of Aggie while Leena was another of his many victims.
At least, that is what Samuel Pinchard assumed happened. Further research, however, eventually leads Ailey to an astonishing discovery involving her ancestor and her school.
