Elizabeth Barrett Browning is confined to bed, chafing against the restriction of her doctors and writing poetry and fretful letters; while at her family’s Jamaican estate Creole housekeeper Kaydia tries to protect her daughter from their predatory master, and a recently freed black slave, Sheba, mourns the loss of her lover. As Elizabeth, a passionate abolitionist, struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege, both Sheba and Kaydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever present. Laura Fish's use of letters excavated from the Barrett archives as well as island dialects result in an extraordinary evocation of the dark side of the 19th century that is both horrifying and ultimately redeeming.