Chapters 1 through 7 Summary

As the story opens, several slaves are trying to comfort a slave woman named Hetta who is dying in childbirth. Hetta, at twenty-nine, has given birth to fifteen children and the woman who tends birthing mothers, Granny Ticey, knows that Hetta is not going to live. She tries to convey her fears to the plantation owner, John Dutton, who sends for a doctor. When the doctor arrives several days later, the opportunity to help Hetta has passed and the doctor tells John there's nothing to be done. John, the father of most Hetta's children though she also has a husband, visits her and assures her that she'll soon be recovered though he obviously believes she is going to die. When she says she wants to see her daughter, Vyrie, before she dies, John sends for the little girl who is in...