The Prologue is set in 1935 and is told in first person by Polly Tademy, one of the protagonists, as she reflects at 100 years old on the events of Easter 1873 on which the rest of the book centers. She warns the reader: “Come closer. This is not a story to go down easy, and the backwash still got hold of us today” (1). She will tell the history of her family, the Tademys.

She explains that the 10 years following the end of the Civil War were a time of hope, but also of violence and darkness. She is the last of her generation left alive and “all I do is remember and pray the story don’t get lost forever” (1). By contrast, her friend Lucy would have preferred to forget the violence of 1973 and the end of Reconstruction. However, Lucy is dead now, and Polly explains that they outlasted the men.

The events of 1873 are not taught at the “colored school” in Colfax, which was the work of Polly’s husband, Sam (2). Polly explains that the black people of Colfax have been erased from the town’s history, which the whites have distorted. Nevertheless, the truth is passed down across generations of black families.