Amma is the creator god, the master of life and death, and he
is worried. His people have always known how to take care of
the spirits of the dead - the nyama - so that they don't become
destructive forces among the living. But amid the chaos of the
African slave trade and the brutality of American slavery, too
many of his people are dying and their souls are being ignored
in this new land. Amma sends a young man, Ekundayo, to a
plantation in Virginia where he becomes a slave on the eve of
the Civil War. Amma hopes that Ekundayo will be able to find
a way to bring peace to the nyama before it is too late. But
Ekundayo can see only sorrow in this land - sorrow in the
ownership of people, in the slaves who have been separated
from their children and spouses, in the restless spirits of the
dead, and in his own forbidden relationship with his master's
daughter.

How Ekundayo finds a way to bring peace to both the dead and
the living makes this an unforgettable journey into the slave
experience and Julius Lester's most powerful work to date.