Abyssinia Jackson, born in an Oklahoma cotton field in the wake of a tornado, is the pride and joy of her family, church, and community until a series of natural disasters and personal attacks threaten to break her spirit, but Mother Barker and her lessons in folk medicine help Abby survive. Abby, born in an Oklahoma cotton field in the wake of a tornado, learns the secrets of folk medicine from the healer Mother Barker as she grows up