After Annie, falls into bad health, a doctor recommends to her husband that they move somewhere with warmer climate. From their home along the Great Lakes, they relocate to North Carolina and visit a grape vineyard that has potential for business. There is no one at the grape vineyard except for an old Black man, Julius McAdoo. The husband mentions that he wants to buy the site, and Julius man responds with a cautionary tale about the vineyard’s history. The vineyard was owned by Master Dugal McAdoo, who employed a mix of both slaves and free men. After noticing that his scuppernong grapes were going missing, he went to a local voodoo witch to cast a spell. She made it so that anyone who ate the grapes would die within a year. The spell is proven to work, and all slaves stop eating the grapes, except for old Henry. He was an old slave that was recently brought to the vineyard and was not aware of the spell. The voodoo witch took pity on Henry and reversed the first spell, but her magic had side effects. Although Henry was originally an old man, he became a young man in the summer and revert back in the winter. Master Duglas took advantage of his situation by selling him for a high price in the summer and then offering a small reimbursement when Henry reverted in the winter. This cycle goes on for at least five years, until a visitor from the North implements a new method to make vineyard thrive even more. He destructively digs around the roots of all the vines, but the master has faith in him and lets him continue. Although the vines start shooting up at a rapid rate initially, they all wither away before they can fruit. Henry’s own aging and health sync up with the vineyard, and he grows older and sicker when the vegetation withers. He dies with the vineyard, and Master Duglas dies in the Civil War, causing all the slaves to be scattered. To prove his story, Julius shows the couple Henry’s gravesite and warns them not to buy the vineyard.  Despite Julius’s story, the couple purchase the vineyard and find great success. The husband later discovers that Julius profited when no one owned the vineyard, which may have influenced the tale he told them, but the couple still end up employing him as a coachman.