Publisher's Synopsis
It is 1875 in Texas, and Albert Waters takes pride in his image--prosperous merchant and plantation owner who freed his wife's slaves before the Civil War and gave them land after her death. Then his son Toby, ready to depart for Harvard Medical College, demands answers. Was his mother a slave?
How does a man account for the truth that on a drunken night, when all he could think about was Amelia, his long-ago lover, he gave in to the touch of a slave girl?
Al and the Waters plantation co-operative of former slaves create a community that prospers as they educate their children and work their land. They organize against political forces reexerting control through rape, lynchings, and the rise of the KKK.
Al believes he has been given a new life when Amelia arrives in the midst of the turmoil to rekindle the passion of their love. But, in this rapidly changing world swirling around him, Al will have to confront the image he has held of himself if he wants to keep Toby and Amelia, the two people he loves most.
