Three women. One man. And the river that defines them all.

Across the decades encompassing the Civil War and its aftermath, three girls grow up along the banks of the Ohio River in Wheeling, West Virginia, separated by status yet bound by friendship and need. Magic, born into poverty, uses her wits to scheme a path to a better life. Ketta, isolated by privilege, is tormented by visions of spirits who reveal what the living try to hide. Birdie lives enslaved, watching freedom beckon from the far bank of the river, but any hope of emancipation demands an agonizing trade-off.

Their lives are shaped and shadowed by one man — husband to one, brother to another, predator to the third — who holds power over each of them in different and devastating ways. When he moves to cheat them out of what is rightfully theirs, they are forced to each decide what it truly costs to resist—and if the price is worth paying.