It is 1852 as approximately fifty slaves work a one-hundred-acre cotton plantation in Carolina County, Virginia. Little Emeline, one of five slaves residing in the big house on the Berkley plantation, has been gifted with buttercream-colored skin, beauty, and innocence. Ten years later, Emeline is one of the privileged who has been assigned to complete arduous tasks around the house. Despite what she sees and hears, she has learned to keep her head down and stay out of white folks' way. Her husband, George, is Master Berkley's valet and driver, who understands what life is like for the other slaves who are beaten, sold, and cannot read or write. George wants nothing more than to escape their life of bondage. Emeline, on the other hand, is terrified of what might await them on the other side. Two years later, George runs off and joins the Union Army, leaving Emeline behind to wonder whether he is alive or dead. But what she does not know is that the taste of freedom is closer than she thinks. In this compelling historical tale, two privileged slaves toiling on a Virginia cotton plantation embark on a journey toward freedom, instigating a generational curse that transforms the future.