The novel begins with a brief prologue. A teacher encourages a reluctant student, dressed in costume, who is apparently about to participate in some kind of theater performance. The author leaves the details intentionally vague. The teacher, however, notices a ladybug light on her finger and takes it as a good sign. The student has stage fright. The teacher assures her the important thing is to share the story. The student sheepishly agrees and goes in front of the audience. She begins her recitation, “I am Hannie Gossett” (5).

The novel moves back to early spring 1875 on the Gossett family farm outside Augustine, Louisiana. The farm is in a tumult. The longtime head of the family, William, left at Christmastime to bail out his profligate son from yet another legal jam in the Texas town where the family maintains its other farm. It has been four months, and the farm swirls with rumors that William may be dead. 18-year-old Hannie Gossett, formerly enslaved and now a sharecropper on the farm, is alarmed. She fears that now, within a few months of completing her ten years of contracted time as a sharecropper, William’s shrewish wife will renege on the contract and refuse Hannie her promised forty acres of land.