Summary

The novel opens on 48-year-old Althea Butler-Cochran, who is in jail in New River Junction, Michigan. She thinks back to two years prior when she was arrested, along with her husband Proctor, in the restaurant they owned, Althea's Food and Grocery, which was a prominent fixture in the community. She then recalls the first time she met Proctor, in 1977, at her mother's funeral. Althea was 12 and holding onto her siblings, Joe, four, Viola, six, and baby Lillian. Proctor had found her sitting alone after the service and brought her a plate of food. Back in her cell, Althea looks at her mother's Bible, inside which she has a letter from her daughter, addressed to Proctor, that she has not read.

In Chapter 2, Althea's sister Lillian sits in the courtroom with Althea's teenage daughter Baby Vi. They have come for Althea and Proctor's sentencing...