The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Brown, Diane Marie, Black Candle Women, Graydon House, 2023.

Brown's novel, divided into 45 sections, tells the story of a family of women who work through generational trauma and uncover family secrets using Voodoo and hoodoo. The saga of the Montrose women begins in the 1950s in the French Quarter of New Orleans and ends with the youngest member, 17-year-old Nickie, learning about her family's past and accepting her power. Set in the tradition of southern African American folk literature, Black Candle women raises ethical questions concerning practicing magic, while imparting knowledge about Voodoo and hoodoo beliefs and practices.

Brown begins the novel with the matriarch of the Montrose family, Augusta, traveling on a plane to New Orleans, hinting at the secrets the other members of her family uncover within the course of the novel. Then Brown jumps back in time to about a year earlier on the day of Nickie's 17th birthday party. Victoria feels sick when Nickie brings a boy over because Victoria believes every man a Montrose woman loves is cursed to die. The family acquired this curse via Bela Nova, Augusta's Voodoo and hoodoo teacher in New Orleans. In Augusta's flashbacks throughout the novel, Brown details how the relationship between the young student and her mentor turned sour. Augusta fell in love with Bela Nova's son, Dudley Lee, and then used a hoodoo spell to draw him to her against Bela Nova's wishes because she was set to marry her son into a wealthy family. Dudley Lee left his finance for Augusta, enraging Bela Nova and causing her to speak a curse against Augusta and all her female descendants. Augusta and Dudley Lee then stole Bela Nova's prized spell book, Delilah. While Victoria believes in the curse, not every member of the Montrose family shares her surety.

When Nickie brings a boy to her birthday party, a central conflict in the novel begins: a struggle between mother and daughter. Victoria gets increasingly strict with Nickie throughout the novel, taking away her phone and limiting her computer use, the more she suspects the girl of spending too much time with Felix. At the same time, Victoria struggles to convey information about the family's history and her beliefs to Nickie. This leads to Nickie's confusion and alienation. Felix jilts her, leaving her alone in a hotel room on a night she had hoped to lose her virginity. She begins to practice hoodoo with her aunt Willow instead of praying to Voodoo saints like her mother had wanted. Eventually she runs away to New Orleans to learn the truth about her family's history. When her family rescues her there, they visit the shop together where they confront Bela Nova, now 102 years old. The women forgive each other and give Bela Nova back her spell book. Nickie sings the song of Lanora with her eyes closed, breaking the curse.

Each woman and each perspective in the novel goes through a journey of healing trauma through love, family connections and traditional spiritual practices. The novel tells the story of Nickie's coming of age, as well as the transformations of the other female characters. Nickie's mother Victoria loosens her grip and falls in love with a former client of her therapy business by the end of the novel. Willow brings a man home and starts tutoring Nickie in hoodoo, actions that make Victoria angry enough to throw her out of the house. By the end of the novel, she returns home and to helping her sister and her niece. Victoria and Willow's mom, Madelyn, comes home, clean from a drug addiction. Victoria does not trust her at first, but by the end of the novel they have started to repair their relationship. Augusta learns ways to confess the secrets she has carried around for years by the end of the novel, such as using voice to text software to write her great grand daughter Nickie a letter explaining the truth.