In 1850, Lala King is a young mulatto woman, living and working in the mansion of New York's notorious Madame Lilli Mirceaux. Madame Mirceaux has been charged with murder by misadventure in the death of a desperate sixteen-year-old girl. After suffering years of abuse at the hands of Madame Lilli, and resentful at the control the woman wields over her son, Lala is empowered as her tormentor faces the loss of everything. Free to work and decide for herself and her son, Hi, for the first time in her life, Lala sets out boldly for the Five Points. Follow Lala's journey as she and Hi create a sense of family in the course of making deadly enemies, in this first of the series, A Chronicle of Kings.