In the bustling mar­ket­place of 1830s Ken­tucky, Clara Brown expe­ri­ences a painful scene as she clings to her youngest child, Eliza Jane, who is sob­bing uncon­trol­lably. Clara anx­ious­ly tends to Eliza, try­ing to calm her before the auc­tion block—a place where enslaved indi­vid­u­als are sold—which fills Clara with dread. Hav­ing been born enslaved her­self, Clara fears for her daughter’s well-being, hop­ing Eliza will be sold to a car­ing fam­i­ly instead of fac­ing harsh treat­ment.

Clara’s trag­ic his­to­ry unfolds as she recalls her own child­hood; her enslave­ment began at birth, and she was sep­a­rat­ed from her fam­i­ly at a young age. Despite the hard­ship, Clara mar­ried Richard for love, a rare occur­rence among the enslaved. Togeth­er they had four chil­dren but faced unspeak­able loss when their own­er, Ambrose Smith, died. The fam­i­ly’s only option was to be sold indi­vid­u­al­ly, a fate Clara dread­ed as they took turns on the auc­tion block.

Eliza­’s heart­break­ing sep­a­ra­tion from Clara, cul­mi­nat­ing in being sold away, stirs a pro­found grief with­in her. Clara’s pain is mag­ni­fied by the haunt­ing mem­o­ry of the day Pauli­na, her oth­er daugh­ter, drowned, leav­ing Eliza trau­ma­tized. Clara wor­ries for Eliza­’s emo­tion­al state and future. As the auc­tion pro­ceeds, Clara is ulti­mate­ly sold to George Brown, a mer­chant who employs her with­in his house­hold.

For twen­ty years, Clara works tire­less­ly for the Browns, con­tem­plat­ing the fates of her chil­dren who have dis­ap­peared from her life. Mar­garet has died; Richard has been sold to a plan­ta­tion, and Eliza­’s trail is silent. When Clara is freed by George Brown’s will, she strug­gles with the loom­ing dead­line to leave Ken­tucky.

Set­tling in St. Louis as a house­keep­er for Ger­man immi­grants, Clara learns new culi­nary skills and immers­es her­self in a dif­fer­ent cul­ture. She dili­gent­ly search­es for Eliza among the Black com­mu­ni­ty but meets with no suc­cess. When the Brun­ners decide to move to Kansas, Clara seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to accom­pa­ny them, dri­ven by hope that she might find her daugh­ter in this new land, unknow­ing­ly head­ing towards the tur­moil of what will become known as Bleed­ing Kansas. Clara’s deter­mi­na­tion to reunite with her child is unwa­ver­ing, embody­ing the strength of a mother’s love amid relent­less despair.