The story follows Hetty 'Handful' Grimké, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimké family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next 35 years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other's destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.