Part I
The novel begins with the main character, twelve-year-old Sophie Caco, returning home to her aunt, Atie. The two women live in Haiti and while Sophie goes to school, her aunt never learned how to read and write because she had to work in the fields. Despite this, Atie is proud of her niece and does everything she can to make sure that Sophie receives an education.
Sophie never met her mother, Martine, who lives in New York, and while Sophie accepted her aunt as her surrogate mother, Atie claims that she can never take Martine’s place and that Sophie should keep the cards she makes on Mother’s Day for her real mother. Atie enjoys playing the lottery so a lottery agent named Chabin visits her daily.
One evening during a neighborhood potluck, Atie lets it slip that Martine sent a plane ticket for Sophie. Sophie is reluctant to believe her aunt but Atie assures her that it is true and explains why Martine left. Before leaving for America, Atie and Sophie visit Grandmè Ifé, Sophie’s maternal grandmother. There Sophie has a nightmare about her mother chasing her through a field of wildflowers. Sophie runs away from her mother, searching for her aunt before she can be caught.
As a parting gift, Atie buys Sophie a new dress with daffodils on it. Atie takes Sophie to the airport in a taxi but the trip there is dangerous, as there are protests nearby. After they meet a woman at the airport who will take care of Sophie during the trip from Haiti to New York, Atie and Sophie say their goodbyes.
In the plane, Sophie is seated next to the boy of a dead and corrupt politician who is also sent to America with his only living relative. At the airport in New York, Sophie meets Martine, who is excited to see her little girl again. On the way to Martine’s apartment, Sophie reluctantly answers her mother’s questions about life in Haiti. During the conversation, Martine tells Sophie that Atie was supposed to get married to Monsieur Augustin, the man Atie watches from afar, but that she was dumped when Monsieur Augustin found another woman.
The Brooklyn neighborhood where Martine lives in is dilapidated and dirty. Martine shows Sophie her new room and lets her settle in before retiring to her own bedroom for the night. In the middle of the night, Sophie is woken when her mother has a terrible nightmare. The two end up sleeping in the same bed for the night, but Sophie stays up thinking for hours.
The next day, Martine takes Sophie out shopping for school supplies and to meet her boyfriend, Marc, who promises to take them out to dinner that night. They go to a famous Haitian restaurant but the atmosphere is tense and uncomfortable. Marc asks Sophie what she wants to become when she grows up and is disappointed when Sophie answers that she wants to become a secretary. Sophie also notices that the waitress looks strangely at her because she looks nothing like her mother.
Months pass and since school does not start yet, Sophie has to spend her days in the nursing home where her mother works. Sophie lounges around watching TV until one day she asks her mother whether she could start working as well. Martine refuses to let Sophie work, telling her that her job is to learn and become a doctor.
During their time together, Martine tells Sophie how she met Marc and how their relationship would have not been possible in Haiti because of their social differences. Martine tells Sophie how her own mother used to test her when she was a young girl to make sure that she is still a virgin but how she lost her virginity when a man raped her in a corn field when she was just sixteen. She never saw the man’s face but he was most likely one of the tonton macoutes. This was when Sophie was conceived and while Sophie looks nothing like her mother, Martine imagines a resemblance between Sophie and the man who raped her.
Part II
Years pass and Sophie turns eighteen. Martine and Sophie move to a small house in a nicer neighborhood, and while high school was hard, Sophie got through it successfully.
During her first years spent in America, Sophie was not involved with any man but she suddenly becomes attracted to a saxophone player from next door named Joseph. Sophie and Joseph spend a lot of time together but they never get psychical. Sophie keeps her boyfriend a secret and comes up with another fictional boyfriend to make her mother happy while Joseph is on tour.
When Joseph returns, he and Sophie continue to meet in secret and one night, Joseph kisses Sophie and then asks her to marry him. Sophie is unsure and she asks Joseph to give her a few days to think about it.
When Martine finds out about Joseph, she is extremely angry and pulls Sophie upstairs so she can test her to see if she is still a virgin. Sophie desperately tries to think of other pleasant thoughts while this is happening. After a few weeks of this, she decides to prevent further testing by taking a pestle and penetrating herself to break her hymen. This is incredibly painful but Sophie simply wants to control her own body. Martine tests her and realizes her hymen is broken. She is miserable but Sophie does not care, and packs up her things when Martine sleeps. Sophie goes to Joseph and tells him she will marry him but it must be this instant. They will move to Providence, and Sophie is hopeful that she will be happy there.
Part III
Two years after the incident, Sophie returns to Haiti with her infant daughter named Brigitte. They meet with Atie who for Sophie hasn’t changed a bit. Sophie tells her aunt that she hasn’t spoken to her mother in two years and together they go to Grandma Ifé's house. Atie is proud to tell Sophie that she learned how to read with the help of one of her friends and they practice together often. Grandmè does not approve of Atie taking night classes and caring so much about her reading; she also does not like Louise, Atie’s friend.
Sophie sleeps in her mother’s old bedroom and thinks about Joseph and how he used to play his saxophone for her. Later that night, Sophie is woken by a strange noise in the yard and when she goes outside she realizes that it is her aunt returning home after a night of drinking. The next day, Sophie wakes up and after taking care of her daughter goes to the market with her grandmother. There, they meet with Louise before witnessing a violent clash between a street vendor and some tonton macoutes on the street.
Once they return home, Atie goes to the market on her own and doesn’t return until late in the night. Grandmè asks Sophie if she has problems in her marriage and Sophie admits sexual intercourse with her husband is painful. Sophie remembers how she had to get stiches after breaking her own hymen and how painful it was for her when she had sex for the first time with Joseph. Despite the pain, Sophie continues to try and please her husband, feeling as if it is her duty to do so.
Atie and Louise go to the city hall to register and when Atie returns home, she brings a pig with her. That night, a cassette comes from Martine, telling them that Sophie has been missing and that Joseph is worried.
The next day, the women find that Dessalines, the man from the market, has been killed. Grandmè says Sophie should keep Brigitte inside for her own safety. Later that night, Sophie ruminates on how her mother attempted to kill herself numerous times after she remained pregnant. Atie tells Sophie of her own troubles, saying she is depressed lately and lost all her hope for a better future.
Sophie’s grandmother decides to record a new cassette and send it to Martine, calling her to come back and reconcile with Sophie. Three days later, Martine comes to Haiti. Martine takes Brigitte in her arms and tells Sophie that it was hard for her to answer any of her daughter’s letters because she did not know what to tell her. Martine offers to take Atie and her mother to the city but Grandmè Ife refuses to leave the lands she knew all her life.
Grandmè Ifé puts her affairs in order while her daughters are around her and divides her wealth equally. After Atie fails to return home one night, Grandmè Ifé asks Martine to take Atie with her to New York but Martine tells her mother that Atie refuses to go.
When Sophie asks, Martine admits that the only reason why she tested Sophie was because her mother had done it to her as well when she was a child.
That night, Atie finds that Louise left the valley for America without saying goodbye to her and thinks that Louise was never her friend.
A few days later, Sophie and Martine leave Haiti and return to New York.
Part IV
During the plane ride, Martine tells Sophie that she will never return to Haiti because the place makes her sick and Sophie admits that she suffers from bulimia. Sophie spends the night at her mother’s house and finds that Martine burnt every belonging she left behind. Martine goes out to see Marc and Sophie calls Joseph who forgives her and assures her that he still loves her.
The next day, Martine tells Sophie that she is pregnant but that she doesn’t plan on marrying Marc. Martine feel anxious about being pregnant again and doesn’t think her body can handle the pregnancy considering that she was diagnosed with cancer a few years before and had to endure the harsh treatment. Martine also worries that she will lose her sanity but Sophie wants her to keep the baby.
Sophie then returns to Providence with her mother’s car and thinks about all the things Martine had to go through and how she was affected by her pregnancy as well. Once at home, Joseph is mad at Sophie for running away but tries to understand her. Sophie tells him about her trip back home.
Martine becomes increasingly unstable after Sophie leaves and admits seeing her rapist everywhere. Martine goes to a clinic to get an abortion but the people from the clinic tell her to think about it for 24 hours.
Sophie tries to have sex with her husband and to eat without making herself sick but is unsuccessful. Sophie attends meets with a group of women who have phobias regarding sex and they perform rituals and affirmations to help themselves get over their fears.
When Sophie arrives home, she calls her mother and then sends a letter to Atie who had troubles dealing with Louise’s departure. Sophie tries to deal with her problems by going to weekly therapy sessions with a therapist named Rena. Sophie is able to understand more easily why her mother acts the way she does and the reason behind her actions. Rena suggests then that the only way Sophie and Martine will be able to get over their past is by returning to Haiti and facing their fears.
The next weekend, Sophie and Joseph visit Martine and Marc. Martine tries to make Joseph and Marc get along and when the night is over the couples depart in high spirits. Martine tells Sophie that she will have an abortion because she feels as if a piece of the rapist is still inside her and by having the baby she will let that piece of evil loose into the world. Martine begins hearing voices, one being the baby whom she claims has a evil man’s voice, and Sophie is worried for her mother.
That night, Sophie receives a message from Marc telling her to call him. Marc doesn’t answer until the next day in the morning when he tells Sophie that Martine killed herself after she stabbed herself in the stomach seventeen times. Sophie then goes to New York while Joseph remains with Brigitte at home. Marc arranged for Martine’s body to be sent to Haiti to be buried. Sophie chooses vibrant red clothes to bury Martine in and she and Marc both board a plane to Haiti.
They meet Grandmè and Atie at the airport and then spend all night talking. The next day the funeral takes place but Sophie is unable to stay until the end so she runs into a cane field. She screams and violently beats the cane. The novel ends with Grandmè Ife consoling her granddaughter as she weeps and telling her she knows how to answer the question or whether or not she is free.
