The novel follows Almeyda, who retrospectively tells the story of her life, from growing up as a slave in a plantation in 1670s Brazil to her journey throughout the country to find her missing husband.

[3] The story begins with seven year old Almeyda, then known as Almeydita, who grows up as a slave on a plantation in 1670s Brazil with her stern, stoic mother and eccentric grandmother.

While on the plantation, Almeydita meets a free Black woman from Palmares, which is a city that is governed by freed and escaped slaves.

Almeyda then travels throughout Brazil in a quest to find her husband, meeting a variety of people throughout the way, some free, some enslaved, and others from a warrior or mystical background.

"[4] Writing for The Guardian, author Yara Rodrigues Fowler praised Jones for deftly exploring unstable social constructs such as gender and race.