This is the story of Ngozi Akachi, an Igbo girl from a village in Bendel (now Delta) State of Nigeria, born sometime in the late 70’s. Born in bad rainy weather that caused flooding and the disappearance of some kids, livestock and property, she looked light-skinned unlike the rest of the family. The villagers superstitiously blamed her birth for their loss and this probably led the father to decide that she was not his daughter, but a spirit-child. Under this belief he starts raping her at will when he could no longer control his sexual urges. This very act of incest was to be the source of shame and pain for the girl which she has to bear in silence for many years. Probably because his son Nnamdi and wife began to notice his assaults on the girl, the man decides to send her off to live with his brother in Lagos. This is the secret past that took the whole of the book to be revealed.
Getting to London though, she realizes right away that it was a big mistake. James was no rich gentleman with a house of his own, living instead in a flat he shared with two black men. One of the men, Providence, happened to be a Nigerian too. Rather than escaping Africa at last, Ngozi (now going by the easier-to-pronounce name of Erika on James’ insistence) was surprised to encounter Africa even in the UK. Her neighbor was a Ghanaian woman (Bessie) and there was no secrecy to be enjoyed in James’ shared flat. James took her British money and passport without telling her, treated her like sexual property, and for the next few months she lived under his total control and in fear of him. When she begins to get some confidence and have friends of her own, like the Ghanaian woman and even Providence himself, James gets jealous. He forbids her to relate with Bessie (which she could not abide with), and he kicks Providence out of the flat under the pretence he was raising a family. He finally marries Ngozi in a rush to further entrap her, but unlucky for him he starts treating her like a slave, and even physically assaulting her. And unlucky for him she is the one to receive the mail containing her British papers and passport when it arrives, which she hides from him. Armed with her legal papers and unable to put up with James’ mistreatment any more, she finally packs her bags and leaves, going to join Providence in Leicester. From then on things finally take a good turn for her. Providence loved her, was doing well in a flat of his own, and treated her with respect, eventually assisting her to file for divorce and then proposing to marry her.
It was at this point that the news of her father’s death arrived in an email from Princess. She decides to return to Nigeria to attend the funeral, but she was rather happy than sad that the man had finally died. She appears to recover from the trauma of the past as she begins telling people about it, beginning with Providence, in an “unbridled” sort of way. On arrival in Lagos she confronts her older brother Nnamdi, wondering how he could pretend not to have known what their dad did to her. And even after she told her aging mother, she realized the woman had also known all along. Then the unanswered question—why had she done nothing at the time?
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