Homegoing Summary

In the turmoil of a forest fire between Fanteland and Asanteland, a girl named Effia is born. As she comes of age under the harsh hand of Baaba, she's eventually married off to Cape Coast Castle's British governor, James Collins. The revelation that her real mother was a slave, who gave birth to her before escaping into the fatal flames of the night she was born, only comes to light when she returns to her village as a pregnant woman. The secret sibling, an equally unaware Esi, is thrust into a life of hardship, beginning with her capture and subsequent rape that leads to her being shipped off to America as a slave.

Effia and James’s offspring Quey lives a lonely life, briefly finding a friend in a boy named Cudjo before being sent away to London. He eventually returns to help his uncle with the slave trade, marrying a kidnapped Asante king's daughter despite his personal objections to the arrangement. Parallel to Quey's life, Esi's daughter Ness endures her own tribulations as a slave in Alabama. A failed escape attempt, assisted by a woman named Aku, results in her husband Sam's lynching and her brutal punishment. Years later, Quey’s descendant James breaks free from the family’s involvement in the slave trade by faking his death, ultimately finding his way back to the woman he loves, Akosua. On the other side of the ocean, Kojo, Ness's son, lives in constant fear under the looming shadow of the Fugitive Slave Act, which eventually results in his wife Anna’s capture.

Years later, the descendants of Effia and Esi continue to face trials and tribulations. Effia's lineage sees unmarried Akua, a daughter who sets her family hut aflame in her sleep, Yaw who becomes a history teacher despite bearing the scars of the fire, and eventually Marjorie who struggles with her dual cultural identity. Across the ocean, Anna and Jo’s son H, born on a plantation, endures the injustices of a racist society, while Willie, his daughter, struggles with her husband’s betrayal. This tumultuous journey comes full circle when Marjorie, the descendant of Effia, meets Marcus, the descendant of Esi, in Ghana where they acknowledge their shared history and the painful legacy left by the slave trade.