Through these characters, the novel examines the long-established white families of the Deep South of the United States, their responses to changing social values and norms, and the hypocrisy of racism.

The secret of the marriage came out only after the younger Abigail was married to John Tolliver, an up-and-coming politician, who was running for governor.

They kill the livestock and set fire to the barn, but Abigail succeeds in driving them away from the house with her grandfather's shotguns.

Grau illustrates what she regards as hypocrisy among Southerners, whose purported beliefs about race sometimes conflict with their actions and/or statements.

[1] Grau's bitter condemnation of racist rhetoric, made at the height of campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, evoked a sharp public reaction against the author.

When the book was first published, Grau was publicly attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, and a cross was burned on her lawn in Metairie, Louisiana, where she had long lived near New Orleans.