In a small community in Mississippi, the seven-year-old Gage and her five-year-old sister Trudy are being looked after by Maity, a Black girl who lives nearby and has worked as a nurse for almost every family in the neighborhood. The whole community is fond of her, but she likes to make trouble, so one family fires her and the next family hires her. Gage and Trudy are particularly fond of her, and their family employs her for the longest of any other. Although the girls' mother is getting irritated by Maity, she keeps her employed to please her children. When a new family, the Hardins, move in, the people of the neighborhood try to welcome them, though they don't seem to quite fit in. They have two young girls and they offer Maity a job. Independent as she is, Maity accepts, leaving Gage and Trudy. The Hardins do not let other children play with Maity and their daughters. One night, they hear screams coming from the Hardins' house. The men of the neighborhood listen, and they hear that Mr. Hardin is whipping Maity. Before their mother can stop them, Gage and Trudy go to the window and see Maity hobbling away from the Hardins' house. For several months, Maity is hard to find. One day, Gage's mother tells her to go to Maity's house and bring her back there. The mother tells Maity that the Hardins are moving away, and that she or any family in the neighborhood would hire her back. Maity politely declines, saying she's getting too old for nurse work. And that is the last that they ever see of Maity.