After Eula May lost her mind to a married man and killed herself and the man, her only daughter Roberta, is left to be raised by a midwife, who gives her a living, but no love; She then begins an obsession with a man Charles Brooks, who is more interested in another woman than her, but gets him to marry her, though there is no love in that house; After killing him, she goes to an asylum for some years, and Sara, the woman Charles truly loves, raises the child they created, though he is slow mentally; A prequel to One Day I Saw a Black King;