Rating: ****
Tags: Indentured Servants, Slaves, Plantation Life, Lang:en
Summary
Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old
Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she
is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under
the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia
becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set
apart from them by her white skin. Eventually, Lavinia is
accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is
absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds
herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When
she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into
question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at
risk.