In the fictional Jacobs County-slavery continued uninterrupted into the 1960s through the brutal tactics of the local sheriff's office and the willing complicity of surrounding counties. All the Black women in the county have been made sexually available to any white man, resulting in the mixed blood of nearly all the enslaved population. When the last all-Black child, "the Black Prince," is born, he is secreted out of the county and makes his way north. Years later, when the Black Prince becomes a celebrated writer in Chicago, his growing fame puts an unwanted spotlight on Jacobs County, emboldening the enslaved population, exposing the white supremacists' false sense of superiority, and setting in motion a series of events that will change everything.