Originally published in 1940, this is Cather's last novel, a retrospective portrait of a society and conditions that have vanished forever in the Old South. The stain of slavery is seen through the relationship of Sapphira Colbert to her black maid, Nancy.

Sapphira presides over her Back Creek Valley property with disciplined resolution; her husband, Henry, runs the Mill and sleeps there too, their marriage a formality. By 1865 Sapphira is one of the few Virginians who still owns slaves, a policy Henry finds increasingly difficult to countenance. Sapphira's life is an arid one and, confined to a wheelchair, she has ample opportunity for speculation. When she overhears a conversation linking her husband's name with Nancy, that speculation festers and the horrific potential of Sapphira's power is unleashed . . .