The main male character's mother was gang raped prior to the events of the book and bore a child as a result. The main female character, who is a free Black woman, assumed that she was conceived from an affair between her mother and her mother's slavemaster. It is later revealed that the actual father was the slavemaster's son. The relationship between her mother and the slavemaster's son is framed as consensual, and there is no mention of an age difference. However, the inherent power difference in this relationship is highlighted frequently. A Confederate soldier threatens to sell the main female character into prostitution, and makes veiled allusions to the fact that he would rape her if she were his slave. This book takes place during the United States Civil War, and the primary couple in this book consists of a free Black woman who spies for the Union cause and a white Scottish Union soldier. The characters have honest conversations about this power dynamic and how their coupling would be perceived by other people.