Intricately woven and masterfully executed, The Rib King centers on the black employees of the once wealthy Barclay family. When a promising financial opportunity opens up, Mr. and Mrs. Barclay host a lavish dinner party for a prospective investor, who is drawn to Mamie’s homemade rib sauce. Although the deal falls through, Mr. Barclay decides to take the last of his savings to mass produce Mamie’s sauce throughout the nation’s burgeoning grocery store chains. Mr. Barclay insists that Mr. Sitwell pose as “The Rib King” on the bottles—a humiliating caricature that immediately draws the ire of the black community. An aggrieved Mr. Sitwell serves the Barclays soup with a untraceable poisonous flower, then sets the mansion on fire killing everyone except Jennie and the three orphans. A decade later “The Rib King” continues to haunt Jennie and in order to secure a deal for a hair care balm she has created she is forced into having a fateful confrontation with Mr. Sitwell with fatal consequences.