Grandmother and Nannie spend their days making patchwork quilts, sitting outside under a tree, and watching their grandchildren play around the house. Grandmother is great at remembering dates but needs more details. In contrast, Nannie can remember precise information but is still determining when anything happened. The two talk about their past and how history seems to repeat itself, but everything is different now. When Grandmother was younger, she was known as Sophia Jane. 

One day, when Sophia Jane was a little girl, her father returned home with a new horse and a few slaves he had just purchased. Two of the slaves are a couple with a child around Sophia Jane's age, and Sophia Jane says she wants the little girl to play with her. The other girl, Nannie, was sold to Sophia Jane's father because her former owner went to Texas and needed money. While she is a slave in Sophia Jane's family, Nannie spends her days as a close companion to Sophia Jane. The two grow older together, and eventually, both young women find husbands. As a wedding gift from her parents, Nannie and her husband are given to Sophia Jane and her husband. Sophia Jane and Nannie have a child around the same time, and Nannie nurses both of the children. This begins a pattern of the two women having children every sixteen months or so and Nannie caring for them. However, Nannie grows sick after having her son Charlie, and Sophia Jane has to nurse Charlie and her son Stephen. She becomes attached to Charlie and realizes that she wants to nurse her own children from then on. Nannie recovers and only nurses her own children.

Sophia Jane's husband is selfish and does not spend much time at home but instead travels and gambles. He dies eventually, and Sophia Jane moves her family to Louisiana, where her husband bought a sugar refinery. The sugar refinery could do better, so she moved to Texas, where they owned a few tracts. Some of her sons try to flee because they want to return to Louisiana. Sophia Jane realizes she has been treating her children too harshly and begins spoiling them. Her kids all marry with time, and one of her sons married the granddaughter of Nannie's former owner. Sophia Jane divides her land among the children, hoping to give them a promising future.

Later, when Nannie is emancipated, she agrees to stay with Grandmother even though she doesn't have to. One day, Grandmother goes to help one of her daughters-in-law with their garden, and she dies on the doorstep after laboring in the garden all day.