The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Rainsford, Sue. Follow Me to Ground. New York: Scribner, 2020.

The story is set in an unspecified time and place. The protagonist is Ada, a being who resembles a young woman, but who is actually a being made by elements of nature. She was created by a similar being, referred to only as Father. Ada and Father live in a house in a forest, near a village inhabited by humans. The villagers come to Ada and Father when they are ill, as Ada and Father have powers that allow them to heal humans’ ailments. Father insists that outside of these appointments, he and Ada should limit their contact with humans. Father does not want the humans growing to fear or hate them.

However, Ada secretly forms a sexual relationship with a villager named Samson. They often meet secretly in the forest to spend time together. One day, Samson’s sister Olivia visits Ada. Olivia is pregnant, and she wants Ada to make sure the unborn child is healthy. During the appointment, Olivia makes statements that seem to imply that Samson raped her, and that he is the father of the child. When Ada confronts Samson about these implications, Samson says that Olivia is abusive and manipulative. One day, Father learns about Ada and Samson’s relationship. Father urges Ada to end the relationship, and he says that he has sensed something wrong within Samson.

Ada concludes that Samson might have suffered trauma due to being abused in some way by Olivia. Ada forcibly buries Samson in an area of ground called the Burial Patch, which has healing properties. During this time, part of Samson’s spirit possesses a villager. When Father learns what has happened, he kills and buries the possessed villager. Father then declares his attention to forcibly remove Samson from the Burial Patch. Ada fears that Father will harm Samson, so she kills and buries Father. Ada waits for Samson to reemerge from the Burial Patch, but he never does, and it seems that the weeks of being buried there have killed him.

Ada stops seeing patients, and she lives for the following years in complete reclusion. One day, a young man visits her. He says that he is the son of Olivia, and that Olivia recently died. He says that Olivia often spoke about Ada as if she were a monster. By this point, Ada has realized that Samson is the son’s father, and that Olivia and Samson apparently had an incestuous relationship.