Shipped off to London in order to escape a vindictive plantation overseer, Ani and Esi (Ruth and Anna are their given names in order to not offend the white plantation owners) find themselves in a world which they hoped would be free from oppression and fear yet find themselves in a very different type of danger that threatens to pull them apart.

Half-sisters with the same mother but different fathers, Ruth is black and Anna is mixed race: her father is white, well-placed in society and good friends with Samuel Johnson. Unlike Ruth, she has lived a more privileged life yet with restrictions and humiliations Anna was not aware of until both girls leave their mother following Anna's father to his sister's home in England. There, they are housed with his sister, Edith and her daughter, Elizabeth. Furious at having any people of colour under her roof, Elizabeth does all she can to make the girls' lives hell and seeks to be rid of them the moment her brother's back is turned.

Getten is proving that she is excellent at depth of character and complexity too. This was a richly-woven cast of many but they each carry a little spark and the dual narrative approach helped build that strong sense of tension between the sisters: their segregation from the white community should bring them closer but instead it threatens to tear them apart. Very clever themes riding beneath the narrative here.