Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the 60s, home to Mississippi to participate in voter registration. She is witness to the now-historic events of the century: the Great Migration north, the rise of the civil rights movement, preceded and precipitated...

Still devastated by her father's death, Melody is taken by her mother to live with her father's distant grandparents; the family seems strange at first, and Melody becomes the target of rumour and gossip, but eventually she discovers their dark secrets and struggles to find a safe harbour.