Kneeling before the altar, Florence recalls her mother and remembers that it was she who first taught her how to pray, how to humble herself before the Lord. Now, however, Florence feels more bitter than humble because she knows that she is dying. She remembers all the people who influenced her life, for better or worse, and wants their forgiveness for injustices she believes she perpetrated against them.
Florence looks back on her life, beginning with a night when she was 13, huddled in the small cabin that she shared with her mother and her brother, Gabriel. They feared that their home would be burned down by white men in a way of retaliation for a father's threat of retribution for the gang rape of his daughter Deborah. The horses and riders passed, and they knew themselves to be safe for the time being.
Florence's mother, Rachel, had been a slave before she was freed by the Civil War and had suffered all the miseries and injustices of her position. She had lost several children through death or auction; she had even had one, whom she was never allowed to see, taken away to live in the master's house. For these reasons, Gabriel and Florence were especially precious to her. However, being a boy in a male-centered society, Gabriel was even more special to her.
Gabriel had been their mother's favorite since his birth, and Florence feels cheated of the things that she wanted but that were given to Gabriel instead. He had a chance to attend school, he had the best clothes and food that the family was able to afford, and he had the care of his mother and sister. Yet Gabriel never appreciated what he was given and carelessly squandered it all. When Gabriel was young, he made mischief around town. As he grew older, he took to drinking and loose women, coming home blind drunk and covered with his own vomit.
