Summary

As the book opens, a girl the narrator calls Lilith is the only child born in 1785 on a Jamaican plantation. Her mother, a slave, dies during childbirth. Lilith's father is white. This combination gives the child dark skin and green eyes. Her eyes scare the other slave women, so Jack Wilkins, the plantation's overseer, gives Lilith to a woman named Circe, the only slave who does not work, to raise the child. Lilith grows up thinking that Circe and a crazy slave named Tantalus are her parents, even though Circe is not nice to her. Lilith has a lot of spirit and grows up playing with boys and a white girl. As she gets older though, Lilith’s life changes. Lilith’s white friend takes her place in society. When Lilith turns 14, Circe tells her that she is not her mother and...