A novel that John Grisham has accustomed us to, where the lives of different characters intertwine until they converge, and the trial they are forced into due to the conflicts presented in the story.
A young writer discovers a story related to the slave trade and the coasts and islands of Florida from about three hundred years ago. In this narration — which is written as a story within a story in the novel — she sees a potential goldmine for her new bestseller. At the same time, the writer meets the author of a book in which she has narrated the lives of her ancestors, tracing their journey from Africa to the United States. Meanwhile, the interest of a company in setting up a casino on the island where the former slaves and their descendants are buried arises. A conflict of interest then ensues to prove who owns the island and decide what can be done with it.
Grisham guides us, as he is accustomed to doing, through different stories and perspectives, and manages to maintain the reader's attention until the conclusion. In this novel — which includes some rather harsh descriptions of the slave trade and what was done to the slaves in the early pages — the author maintains a mostly positive tone, defending the interests of the mistreated people, the love for ancestors, and the honor and respect owed to so many who suffered through the slave trade, contrasting this with a purely mercantile and business-driven stance, represented by the company wanting to build the gambling halls.