A remarkable reinvention of the historical past of Africa set in the sixteenth-century West African city of indigenes and foreigners. This debut novel tells the story of Adeolu, a peasant artist and a wise medicine man whose literacy and problem-solving skills were useful in building a modern society.
There's an epidemic striking the land, and no one knows how it's transmitted or how to treat it. Adeolu, a peasant artist and a wise medicine man, has a thought. What if more people are dying because they wore dead people's clothes? Is there is a conspiracy between the merchants and religious zealots not to burn these clothes but instead resell them back to the citizens of Idumagbo?
The king is threatened by his two queens and feels they are trying to replace him with their sons. All the witches but one are rounded up and murdered, but one queen escapes.
Adeolu is the grandson of Keniola, who once was queen in Idumagbo but was kidnapped and sold into slavery. It has taken her decades to escape and return and now that she has, she declares herself regent and convinces the people that having Adeolu as King will bring them back to a more democratic society and government like they used to have before outside influences made them change their ways to a monarchy.
After much infighting and trickery, including one brother killing another to attain the throne, an outside threat unites them when the man who held Keniola but who also loves her very much comes to reclaim her. Muslims, Christians, and traditional worshipers form one army to fight the invaders. Fero, Adeolu's adopted daughter's love for glory and the men she chose to love, colliding together in this exhilarating story of love, destruction but yet the triumph of a people.