Sallie reflects on how little she knows about Grace, the enslaved woman who runs her household. Over five years, Grace has given birth to three sons—Noah, Daniel, and Isaac—telling Sallie only that their father lives nearby, deflecting all personal questions. One day, the brothers return from an auction with three enslaved children—Mary, Nicey, and Joe—whom they purchased after leaving behind their two mothers. Eng and Chang justify their cruelty as a financially sound decision, which deeply disturbs Sallie. She later confronts them about the contradiction of being formerly subjugated men who are now enslavers. They defend their actions as a necessary means of gaining power and security in the South. Increasingly unable to reconcile her faith with her family’s dependence on slavery and feeling alienated, Sallie begins attending Quaker meetings with her children Katie and Patrick, creating a rift between her, Eng, and Chang.

In October 1856, Aunt Joan arrives for an unannounced visit. Joan bluntly confronts the brothers about the irony of them being enslavers after having been sold themselves, and she criticizes the neglect of the enslaved children on the property. Her words affirm Sallie’s growing unease.

Shortly after Joan’s departure, Sallie discovers peanut shells—a telltale sign of Eng’s presence—on the stairs leading to Grace’s room in the kitchen house. After piecing together years of seemingly unrelated memories, she realizes that Eng has been sexually exploiting Grace and is the father of her three sons. Sallie confronts the brothers; Chang flatly denies any involvement, but Eng does not, stating that Grace is his property. Chang adds that Grace, unlike Sallie, “doesn’t say no” (266). Devastated by the betrayal, Sallie understands that Grace, as an enslaved woman, cannot refuse.

Sallie seeks out Addie, who admits that she had suspected Eng was exploiting Grace but advises Sallie to remain silent to preserve their domestic peace. Undeterred, Sallie speaks with Grace, who wearily confirms the truth. Sallie then gives Eng an ultimatum: If he ever forces himself on Grace again, she will leave him, no matter the consequences. He agrees to stop.

The incident permanently alters their relationships. Eng and Sallie’s marriage becomes cold and distant, marked by unspoken tension. Sallie reflects on Frankenstein, which Eng once gave her to read. She notes how, like Frankenstein’s creation, Eng’s “pain” had become “cruelty” and violence over time. Meanwhile, though Sallie and Grace continue to work together, their interactions are now burdened by the shared, unspoken knowledge of Eng’s abuse and the children who are a result of it.

Eng and Chang continue to go further into debt. Despite spending years trying to build respectable lives, they reluctantly return to the exhibition circuit in P. T. Barnum’s touring circus. The work is grueling and demeaning, and they’re away from home for long stretches.

During their absence, Sallie raises her growing family, which now includes sons William and Frederick and a daughter, Rosella, named in memory of Rosalyn. As the children grow, they develop distinct personalities. However, their mixed-race heritage leads to social ostracism. This becomes painfully apparent when the oldest daughters, Kate and Josie, attend a formal dance and are pointedly ignored by the local young men.

As the country moves toward civil war, talk of secession dominates life in North Carolina. The brothers are touring California when Abraham Lincoln wins the 1860 presidential election. While there, they’re subjected to racist, anti-Chinese sentiment in the press. They return home in February 1861 to a nation on the brink of collapse, with seven states having already seceded. After Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, North Carolina joins the Confederacy. The brothers, whose finances have recovered, support the rebellion by purchasing war bonds and converting their fields to grow crops for the army.

The Civil War brings severe hardship and shortages to Surry County, forcing Sallie and her household to become resourceful to survive. Addie’s son Christopher enlists in the Confederate army, and Sallie’s son Stephen follows on his 18th birthday. Both serve in the 37th Virginia Cavalry Battalion. 

Christopher is eventually wounded and taken to a Union prison camp, while Stephen is shot just below the knee but recovers and returns to the front. As the war’s brutal reality becomes clear, Sallie’s moral opposition to slavery strengthens. She breaks with her family’s staunch Confederate stance and permanently returns to attending Quaker meetings, further straining her relationship with Addie, Eng, and Chang.

While knitting socks for soldiers, Sallie and Addie argue fiercely about the war. Addie passionately claims that the Confederacy is a defense of family, tradition, and social order. Sallie challenges her, arguing that they’re fighting to uphold the immoral institution of slavery. Addie invokes her own son Christopher, who’s fighting for the cause, to shame Sallie and criticizes her for being judgmental and soft-hearted. Eng and Chang overhear the end of the fight, and Eng tells Sallie to return home, deepening the rift between the sisters.

In February 1865, Sallie’s 19-year-old daughter, Julia Ann, dies of pneumonia. Her fiancé, Thomas Reece, a soldier recovering from a wound, travels home for the funeral. The loss plunges Sallie and Eng into deep grief. Sallie finds that her Quaker faith offers little comfort in the face of such a loss. She resumes working on her long-unfinished embroidery, finding brief moments of purpose amid her overwhelming grief.

Nearly two years later, Addie experiences a similar tragedy. Her eldest daughter, Josie, dies suddenly at the age of 23. Sallie reflects that grief is not something one gets over but learns to carry.

In the spring of 1865, Union General George Stoneman’s cavalry raids the region, destroying infrastructure in Mount Airy. The brothers’ farms are intentionally spared due to their fame. During a forced conscription lottery, Eng’s name is drawn, but Stoneman dismisses both him and Chang.

A few days later, a group of Union soldiers comes to Addie’s house and harasses her daughter Susan, who bravely fights back. Soon after, news arrives of General Lee’s surrender and President Lincoln’s assassination. Amid the turmoil, Sallie gives birth to her 11th and final child, a son whom Eng names Robert Edward after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, despite Sallie’s reservations. Her son Stephen is shot at the Battle of Boykin’s Mill, one of the war’s final skirmishes. He survives, giving the family a rare moment of relief amid years of loss.

When the war officially ends and emancipation is declared, the enslaved people on the Bunker farms pack their belongings and leave. Sallie watches them go with a sense of relief. Grace and her sons depart to search for her mother, Dinah. Without a labor force, Sallie and her children struggle to manage the immense workload of the house and farm. Ned, one of the formerly enslaved men, soon returns seeking employment. The brothers agree to pay fair wages, rejecting the exploitative sharecropping system that many of their neighbors adopt. More formerly enslaved workers soon return to work on the farm under the new arrangement.

Grace returns to the farm, unable to find her mother. She agrees to stay and work for Sallie under new conditions: a fair wage, a proper house with a lock, and the right for her and her sons to learn to read. Sallie agrees.

While Grace’s new home is being built, she begins attending lessons with the children in the schoolhouse. Sallie later arranges for her son James to find Dinah and bring her back to the farm, reuniting mother and daughter. Around the same time, Sallie visits and reconciles with Phoebe, the formerly enslaved woman whom Eng had banished years earlier after Rosalyn’s death.

Financially ruined by the war, Eng and Chang resume touring and eventually rejoin P. T. Barnum. Their oldest daughter, Katie, falls ill with tuberculosis, and they take her—along with Sallie accompanying them to see her off—on a European tour in a futile search for a cure. Before departing, the brothers stop at the White House to meet President Johnson.

On a subsequent tour, Chang suffers a debilitating stroke that paralyzes his right side. His health declines, and he becomes bitter and reliant on alcohol. The physical and emotional strain steadily erodes his relationship with Eng, who feels imprisoned. One evening, Chang attacks Eng with a knife. Eng drives them to their physician, Dr. Hollingsworth, with Sallie accompanying them, and demands a separation. The doctor refuses, stating that the operation would be fatal, but he promises to sever the band if one of them dies, giving the surviving brother a chance to live.

In February 1871, 18 months after her return from Europe, Katie dies from tuberculosis. Chang’s health continues to deteriorate from his stroke and alcohol addiction. In January 1874, while the brothers are staying at Sallie’s house, Chang develops a severe case of bronchitis. Despite his illness and Sallie’s protests, he insists on making the scheduled trip back to Addie’s house.

Three days later, the brothers return to Sallie’s home, with Chang gravely ill. He dies in his sleep during the early morning hours. Eng immediately feels his own health failing and realizes that he’s dying. They send for Dr. Hollingsworth to perform the emergency separation he promised, but the doctor is away on a hunting trip. With no hope of rescue, Eng dies after his brother. To prevent the bodies from being stolen by medical collectors or showmen, the family temporarily buries the bodies in the cellar. They later consent to an autopsy in Philadelphia, which reveals that the brothers shared a single connected liver, confirming that separation would have been fatal. The wills are read, and both Sallie and Addie are left financially secure from the brothers’ final tours.

In 1886, 12 years after her husband’s death, Sallie lives peacefully on the farm. She shares her home with Grace, Grace’s son Isaac, and Aunt Joan. Isaac now manages the farm. Sallie reflects on her life, the evolution of her relationship with Addie, and the complexities of her marriage. She finds joy in reading, gardening, and the simple rhythms of her life with her chosen family. She finally completes the embroidery she started decades earlier, having transformed it into a wild, imaginative garden that reflects her own journey toward autonomy. She comes to accept that happiness and grief will coexist, finding peace in embracing both as a part of her full, “extraordinary” existence.