Set in turn-of-the-century Kentucky, the novel is written in a series of episodes of first-person narratives about the emerging awareness of a girl, her place in her family and world, and the tremendous power of words for good and bad.
Reflecting the narrator's love of words is the fact that each chapter begins with a succeeding letter of the alphabet.
Amen McBee is born in 1891, the disappointing sixth daughter of a wealthy family; but grows up well-loved and into an awareness of everyone's strengths and weaknesses.
Amen is also learning of the more secret parts of the family history, especially the death of an infant sister, and the mysterious Mr. Tominski, who might have saved her father's life as a child, but now inspires only fear in the children.
Publishers Weekly called the novel "jewel-like"[1] and Kirkus Reviews said it has "prose that ripples with clarity and sweetness and an underlying evolution of spirit.