In 1917, Madeline Fairbanks is an herbalist healer devoted to the people of Jamesville, a dying town in the Southern Appalachians. Renetta Morgan-with whom it is taboo to fraternize because of race-is her apprentice. Maddie's precocious granddaughter, Hannah Tillman, is mesmerized by an ancestral box in Maddie's possession that contains hints of a mystical heritage. On a cold September wind, charismatic Carl Howard blows into town astraddle a stallion of near-mythic proportions. With no reason to doubt him, the town accepts him as their new pastor. But Carl casts a wider net, claiming power, leadership, and much more than he has a right to. He fans fear into hatred, leading to racial conflict and oppression of women. Maddie does not bend the knee to Carl, but continues in her progressive ways-and in doing so, finds herself accused of witchcraft and targeted by the KKK.
