Years before, Helen herself was raised by a widowed father. Asa, the devout owner of a small plantation, gives his daughter a young slave named Moll for her tenth birthday. Helen and Moll go on to develop a close but uneasy companionship. As the girls grow up, Helen gradually takes over the running of the plantation, but when she meets John, the pirate turned Continental soldier, she flouts convention and her father's wishes by falling in love. Moll, meanwhile, is forced into marriage with a stranger. Her only solace is her son, Davy, whom she will protect with a passion that defies the bounds of slavery.

Set during the waning years of the American Revolution, this elegant, evocative, and haunting debut captures the singular love between parent and child, the devastation of love lost, and the desperate paths we travel in the name of renewal.