Actual people, Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina grew up in a wealthy Charleston slaveholding family, and they -- especially Sarah -- were abolitionists and proponents of women's rights. A slave-girl named Hetty "Handful" was real, but her details were largely imagined by Sue Monk Kidd in this historical novel.
At a young age Sarah realized slavery was wrong and on her 11th birthday attempted to reject her parents' gift of Hetty. She was refused, so instead she teaches Handful (her preferred name) to read and promised to free her one day. That promise overshadows the plot for the next 35 years.
Sarah and Handful narrate alternating chapters. Thwarted in her desire to become a lawyer, Sarah makes her way north to Philadelphia and, eventually joined by her sister, creates a national crusade for abolition. She still encounters sexist repression at every turn. Handful, remaining on the Grimke estate, gets involved in slave rebellion plans and yearns for the day she will find the wings her mother promised. Though separated for years, Sarah and Handful will finally come together as Sarah fulfills her promise.
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