"The drums boomed unceasingly, beating the rhythm of change bounding across Skidaway Island--change to the lives of every poor soul rooted in sand on the fragile, wind-swept island." Geechees Lizzie and her daughter Dicie suffer as enslaved cotton field workers on the sub-tropical island. Dicie's beloved father is sold to a rice planter, ripping the family apart. The Geechees rejoice in 1865 when General Sherman captures Savannah and sets them free, but his Field Order No. 15 (40 acres and a mule) confiscates the land mother and daughter farm. One thousand black men rush to Skidaway Island to claim Lizzie and Dicie's home and crops. Her father returns, but relations between her parents break down, even before he embarks on a wild scheme to make money. Will Lizzie's clandestine ability to understand numbers get her killed? Will family secrets foil Dicie's chances with the handsome young drummer on the next plantation? To survive, Dicie must master the ancient African magic practiced by her mother. Geechees call the rituals "rooting," but others call them witchcraft. Against the turmoil of Civil War and Reconstruction, a young girl struggles to preserve her family and to find love.