Jackie Vance and her daughter Ama visit Ghana at the invitation of Mae Brown, an anthropology professor on sabbatical at the University of Cape Coast Ghana. While touring the female slave quarters at Elmina Castle, the largest castle in Africa built by the Portuguese in 1482, Jackie, channelling an Ashanti princess who was captured during the British-Ashanti war, goes into a reverie about the horrifying experiences of the women who lived there several hundred years ago. Jackie was a proud and hot-tempered Ashanti princess called Nana Yaa who was captured during one of the British-Ashanti wars.