Josephine was a house slave to an abusive master and an ailing mistress. She had tried to run once before but was turned away because she was heavy with child.
Skip ahead to present day and the story follows Lina Sparrow, who is a lawyer who is researching a reparation case for the descendants of former slaves. Lina finds the work of an artist who is known to be a slave owner. There is controversy over her works though with many experts claiming the works were really done by her slave, Josephine. Lina believes if she can track down the ancestors of Josephine she will have the perfect plaintiff for her case.

This novel shifts back and forth between the stories of Lina and Josephine as Lina gets closer to finding out the mystery of Josephine's disappearance and trying to track down if she has any descendants. It was fairly slow moving and wasn't my favorite.