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Cora’s grandmother is kidnapped from Africa as a child and sold multiple times before ending up on the Randall plantation. She has three husbands and five children, but only one of her children survives: Cora’s mother. Ajarry dies of a brain hemorrhage while working in the cotton field.

Cora was raped by four men when she was a teenager. She is now living on Randall and tends to her garden every Sunday. Cora inherited the garden from Mabel, who inherited it from Ajarry. After Mabel ran away, Cora became a “stray” and had to live in Hob with other women of ill-repute. Soon after arriving at Hob, Cora destroyed Blake’s doghouse because he built it in her garden and cut off his dog’s tail with an axe.

A group of slaves on a plantation in the south are preparing a feast for one of their friends. A young woman named Cora is talking to her friend Lovey, who likes to dance and is very cheerful. The slaves prepare the feast and have fun dancing before their masters arrive. One of the owners, James Randall, arrives with his brother Terrance Randall and they’re upset that there’s no food left for them. They make everyone else dance while they watch from above (they own the place). One boy accidentally spills some wine on Terrance’s shirt so he gets mad at him but Cora defends him because she knows what might happen next if she doesn’t defend him.

After Jocasta’s (the mother) death, James Randall (Jocasta’s brother) takes over the plantation. This causes Big Anthony to run away, though he is soon caught and killed by Terrance, who tortures him for three days before killing him. After this event, Cora agrees to run away with Caesar; she tells him that Fletcher has helped her escape from slavery through his involvement in a secret railroad network. They manage to get far enough from the plantation that they are captured by hog farmers who take them back to their farm where they kill Lovey and capture Cora. A young boy attacks her and she kills him with a rock after which she runs into Lumbly on an underground railroad station beneath his farmhouse.

Mabel leaves without saying anything to Cora. She hires a slave catcher, who is also the son of a blacksmith that believes in the Great Spirit. He’s tortured by his failure and swears he will find Cora instead.

A couple lives in South Carolina with their two children. They have a black nanny who sometimes takes the kids to her boss’s office building, which has an elevator. The nanny also goes to school and gets medical checkups at local hospitals. One night she wears a pretty new dress for a social event at the dormitory where she lives, along with other people from her race. Later that night, Cora sees another black woman running through the green screaming about how they’re taking away her babies.

Cora is soon moved to a new job as a “type” in the museum. She poses in three different scenes of the transatlantic slave trade: “Scenes from Darkest Africa,” “Life on the Slave Ship,” and “Typical Day on the Plantation.” The doctor suggests that Cora undergo sterilization, which horrifies her. Sam informs Cora and Caesar about rumors that doctors are not treating residents for syphilis so they can study its progression. Meanwhile, other residents are being forcibly sterilized in order to cull their population. Shortly after, an interaction with Miss Lucy causes Cora to fear that her true identity as a runaway slave may have been revealed. She goes to warn Sam who tells her Ridgeway is after her and hides her down on the underground railroad platform until he can figure out what’s going on at his house (which was set ablaze).