Pat believes her "visions" of the past are behind her. But one night, those visions return with a recurring dream of Reconstruction-era Virginia through the eyes of a ten-year-old son of a slave. The boy, named Emancipation because he was born a week after Lincoln's proclamation, seems harmless but clearly intends to tell Pat a story.

When Pat and Miss Maggie dig up a skeleton on the estate grounds, the two can't help but wonder if Emancipation is somehow connected to the corpse.