Frederick Barret, a refugee from war-torn Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti) overcomes hardship and loss to become a wealthy businessman in Savannah, Georgia...Abigail, Frederick's second wife and the daughter of a wealthy Virginia plantation owner, feels she acquired her husband much as she did her clothes, as hand-me-downs from her sister...Jessie Davis, the Barret's cook and a free woman of color, has secrets of her own and an unnatural way of knowing...