Devastated by the loss of her child, plantation mistress Amanda Satterfield does the unthinkable, taking a newborn slave child (whom she names Granada) and raising her as her own. Meanwhile, illness is overwhelming the plantation’s slaves, so Master Satterfield buys Polly Shine, renowned as a healer. Polly see that Granada, too, has the healer’s gift, and her presence at the plantation brings roiling trouble. Odell, author of The View from Delphi, set in pre–Civil Rights Mississippi, researched the WPA’s first-person slave narratives to get the details right.