Suzette is eight years old and lives with her enslaved family on Rosedew Plantation, which is owned by Louis and Françoise Derbanne. Her mother Elisabeth is the cook. Suzette serves as a companion to Oreline, the Derbannes’ orphaned niece, and she also does housework, which accords her a higher status than the enslaved people who work in the fields. She has skin “the color of cocoa” (8), while Elisabeth has darker skin.

One Sunday, Suzette has just returned from St. Augustine Church, where the free people of color who built the church sit up front—a fact that outrages Françoise Derbanne. Suzette asks Oreline to teach her to read, but Oreline refuses because doing so would be illegal. Suzette convinces Madame Derbanne to allow her to take First Communion with Oreline. Both girls are excited as they anticipate their birthdays.

When Françoise complains that Elisabeth’s peach cobbler sickened Louis, Suzette speaks up and asserts that liquor, not sugar, made Louis sick. Madame Derbanne slaps Suzette and tells Elisabeth to teach the girl her place. When Suzette complains about the injustice of the slap, Elisabeth simply tells her, “There is no fair. Just do your work, Suzette” (13). Suzette urinates on Madame Derbanne’s roses the next morning. It is her ninth birthday.

Now 12, Suzette is flush with pride as the only enslaved girl taking First Communion at St. Augustine Church. Also present are her godmother Doralise (the emancipated daughter of Louis), and Nicolas, Suzette’s first crush and the son of a free family of color. Later when Suzette recounts the day to her mother, Elisabeth warns Suzette that only family matters; she stresses that Nicolas will never marry an enslaved girl, then suggests that Suzette has grown too comfortable because of her proximity to white people. Suzette isn’t deterred.

At a party for Oreline, Suzette feels humiliated to be serving the same young white people that she played alongside as a child. Louis makes his usual comments about how burdensome it is to enslave people, although he also asserts that enslavement is the only economic model that makes a cotton economy work. Eugene Daurat, a man recently arrived from France, is also present, and Louis uses lewd language to draw his attention to Suzette. Eugene presents an immature wine to Louis and loudly remarks that sometimes it is better not to wait for good things to ripen before consuming them. This comment is aimed at Suzette and makes her uneasy, so she abruptly leaves.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a plantation-wide celebration with no work and a big party with music, dancing, and gifts from the Derbannes. However, Elisabeth and Suzette must work to prepare the feast. Suzette wonders if Nicolas will be there, even though free people of color rarely mingle with the enslaved people on the plantations.

On the day of the party, Suzette watches with delight as her mother dances flirtatiously for Gerasíme, Suzette’s father, while he plays the fiddle. Suzette enjoys her leisure time with her siblings, including Palmire, a sister who is Deaf and is unable to speak. Overheated from her own dancing, Suzette wanders to the Cane River, and Eugene Daurat follows her. He insists that she sit close to him, and Suzette stays despite her uneasiness because she is afraid of offending a good friend of her enslavers. He rapes her, then sends her back to the party. Afterward, Suzette wonders how she will clean the bloodstains from her crumpled white confirmation dress.

Four months later, a pregnant Suzette names Eugene Daurat as the father of her child, and reactions to this news vary. Elisabeth comforts her and tells her own story about sexual assault on the Virginia plantation where she used to live, describing the two children that she had as a result. However, an exasperated Françoise Derbanne claims that the promiscuous nature of enslaved women is to blame for Suzette’s pregnancy. Oreline, who is keen to catch Eugene’s attention herself, becomes cold and demanding. Some enslaved people on the plantation are glad to see Suzette’s struggles, as they perceived her as being haughty before her pregnancy.

Suzette’s work shifts; she is assigned to the kitchen and sent to tend a rapidly aging Louis Derbanne. Louis still regularly assaults Suzette’s sister Palmire, who is also pregnant. Suzette gives birth to a “buff-colored” (58) boy whom she wants to name Philomen. However, Françoise names the baby Gerant. As Suzette struggles to simultaneously care for a newborn and Louis, she grows overwhelmed. Elisabeth, whom Suzette sees as “the strongest link in a growing chain” (62), is her only solace. Meanwhile, Eugene Daurat relentlessly pursues Suzette, and even though Elisabeth appeals to Françoise for protection, no help is forthcoming.

Louis Derbanne dies, leaving his estate to the church and his wife. The part of his will that attracts them most notice is his decision to free an older enslaved man and two of Louis’s children by an enslaved woman. However, Louis doesn’t free the three children he had with Palmire. Françoise struggles to run the plantation until Eugene Daurat steps in. He then uses his new authority to rape Suzette, who comes to see his repeated violations in the same way that she views the distasteful but routine task of cleaning the outhouse. Eugene only stops raping Suzette when she tells him that she is pregnant; she wants him to buy and emancipate the baby.

Suzette turns to Doralise, her godmother and a free woman of color, and asks her to be the coming baby’s godmother. Doralise has her own struggles: Her husband beats her regularly. She agrees to be the baby’s godmother. Suzette’s labor is easier this time, and she gives birth to a girl. Françoise allows her to name the baby Philomene. Suzette is shocked to learn that Doralise has divorced her husband through Eugene’s intervention in the suit. She is now Eugene’s mistress.

This chapter includes four facsimiles of documents associated with Tademy’s family history, including a line from the two-page family history written by Gurtie Fredieu.