1850, Lynnhurst Virginia:

Josephine Bell is a 17-year-old house slave at Bell Creek, a failing Virginia tobacco farm owned by Mr. Robert Bell and his childless wife, the sickly Mrs. Lu Anne Bell, called Mister and Missus Lu by Josephine. Mister hits Josephine in an arbitrary act of violence and Josephine, with the morning sun in her face and honeysuckle in the air, decides that she will endure no more. Tonight, she will run.

As Josephine moves through her last day at Bell Creek, she is haunted by memories of the first time she attempted escape. Five years earlier, Josephine – pregnant with Mister’s child – ran to the local undertaker’s house, rumored to be a site on the Underground Railroad, but she was turned away. Having nowhere else to go, Josephine returned to Bell Creek, where she suffered a stillbirth. Now Josephine is determined to find the true northward route, to not repeat her mistakes. After a doctor’s visit reveals that Missus Lu is dying, Josephine struggles to reconcile her conflicting feelings for her mistress, a frustrated artist who taught Josephine to read and to paint – a skill that has proven Josephine’s salvation during her long years at Bell Creek.

Missus Lu reveals that Josephine’s child did not die at birth. Josephine has a son living in the slave cabins of a wealthy neighbor. Josephine leaves the house and pauses in the dust of the road: to the south lies her son, to the north lies the road ahead to freedom. She chooses freedom for herself.

2004, New York City:

Lina Sparrow is at loose ends, both professionally and personally. Having just embarked on her legal career at a prestigious corporate law firm in New York, she feels weightless and lost. Lina begins work on a class action lawsuit seeking trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves. Lina’s task: to find a lead plaintiff for the lawsuit, someone with slave ancestors and a compelling personal history that will represent “the nature of the harm” of American slavery.

Lina’s father is the successful artist Oscar Sparrow, a man once crippled by the death of Lina’s mother, Grace, when Lina was four. Oscar has just completed a series of new paintings for an upcoming show. Much to Lina’s surprise, the paintings depict intimate and disturbing images of Grace – this is the first time that Oscar has ever painted Grace. Since her death, Oscar has refused to speak about Grace or permit photos of her in the house. "Your mother loved you, she died; that’s all you need to know," Oscar has always told her. And Lina, fearing a return of her father’s grief, has always believed him.

As Lina begins research for the reparations claim, she learns of a brewing controversy within the art world: art historians suspect that the famous painter, Lu Anne Bell, did not in fact create her iconic paintings. Instead, it was her house girl, Josephine Bell, who was the artistic genius. Inspired and intrigued by Josephine’s story, Lina embarks on a quest to find Josephine Bell’s descendants to serve as lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

In her research, Lina finds a series of letters written by a young woman, Dorothea Rounds, active in the Underground Railroad. "Last night a woman came to the house, heavy with child. She said her name was Josephine," Dorothea wrote. Lina travels to Lynnhurst, Virginia, the town where Bell Creek once stood, to track down Josephine’s child. There, she finds a mysterious manuscript written by Caleb Harper, an alcoholic and spirit-sick doctor employed by a slave catcher.

"The first day I saw Josephine is etched clear and bright in my mind." Caleb’s letter reveals what happened to Josephine after she ran from Bell Creek, continuing the narrative that opened the book. Hoping to find an Underground Railroad station, Josephine stumbles into a trap and is caught by a roving slave catcher, Benjamin Rust. Caleb helps Josephine to escape from Rust and the two run to Philadelphia where she – weakened by sickness and fearing they have been found – commits suicide. Josephine’s last request is that Caleb save her son from the Virginia plantation: Deliver him from that place.

As Lina uncovers information about Josephine, she undertakes a parallel journey to discover more about her mother, a woman who has existed only in Lina’s patchy and idealized memories. Hidden in her father’s papers, Lina finds evidence that her mother is not dead. She confronts Oscar and learns that Grace abandoned Lina and Oscar; he had lied to protect Lina, not to hurt her. "Did I do the right thing?" Oscar asks.

With the information from Caleb’s letter, Lina locates a 21st century descendant of Josephine's to serve as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit but learns that, for political reasons, the case has been dropped. Lina refuses to cancel her meeting with Josephine’s great great great great grandson and quits her corporate law job. She waits for the appointed hour of the meeting and her phone begins to ring hot in her hand; she waits.

"The House Girl" is about finding yourself and finding your history. It’s about defining yourself on the terms you decide rather than those that are handed to you by others. Most of all, it’s about the human emotions – love, regret, and a need for justice – that bind us across race, across gender, across time.