Heloise, A thirteen-year-old girl, lives in the Andre Plantation manner of Mr. Louis DeVille and his wife. The owners of the plantation were killed years ago by Manman, the formerly enslaved mother of Heloise. Within Manman's bedroom lurks a monster posed as a man; Manman warns Heloise never to enter her bedroom. Ignoring instructions, Heloise enters the room and finds a shackled grimy white man inside a closet, who looks oddly similar to her. The decrepit man greets Heloise using her name. Heloise runs off, realizing the man is Louis DeVille, the owner of the plantation who is supposed to be dead.

Manman hosts a quilting party for high society Black women in what is now the United Tribes of Mother Africa, a new political designation for the southeastern part of the U.S. following the successful slave revolt in Haiti. A plain-faced woman named Jean-Marie gets into a fight with Manman. Manman kicks Jean-Marie out of the house for disrespecting her in French, a language widely spoken in the United Tribes post-revolution. After the party, Manman tells the story of her role in the United Tribes revolution in Louisiana to Heloise and her brother Etienne. After Etienne sleeps, Manman tells Heloise a new story. In the story, Manman had a horrible vision that the rebels would be brutally repressed by the whites. In response, Manman conjured the dead through a plea to the god Bondye. Commanding the dead, Manman captured New Orleans.

The next day, Heloise wakes to find Manman and Louis in a deadly struggle. Heloise bashes Louis in the head with a toy gun, saving her mother. Manman reveals that Louis is Heloise's father through rape and that she resurrected Louis from the dead and held him in bondage to punish him for his evils. Charles Deslondes, Manman's partner in the rebellion, arrives at the plantation estate. With Charles' help, they plan to release the unconscious Louis. Louis attacks them, and Heloise threatens Louis with a gun, prompting Louis and the family go their separate ways.