The book portrays the thoughts, feelings and actions of Sally Hemings, a slave living in the household of Thomas Jefferson during her life at Jefferson's plantation in Virginia and during her time living in Jefferson's house in Paris. When she arrived in Paris at age 14 she found that French law made her a free person when she arrived and for as long as she lived in France. She then had to decide whether to remain in France as a free person and leave Jefferson or return to Virginia with Jefferson where she would again be his slave. The book explores the rational for her decision to return to Virginia with Jefferson where she bore 7 children fathered by him.