Colonel Thomas Norwood, a rich White Southerner, waits for his illegitimate son, Bert, to come home. For 30 years, the Colonel has had a secret relationship with Coralee Lewis, a Black woman who helps him run his estate. Bert, the youngest of their biracial children, is handsome and quick witted and has always challenged authority. After six years at boarding school and college, Bert comes home for the summer, and the Colonel is conflicted about his arrival: “Colonel Norwood never would have admitted, even to himself, that he was standing in his doorway waiting for his half-Negro son to come home” (207). The Colonel goes in his study, where he plans to stay for hours to show everyone Bert’s arrival doesn’t mean anything to him. Soon after, he hears commotion. Bert is home. The Colonel remembers beating Bert as a child for calling him “papa” when White guests were over. When the Colonel finally says hello to Bert, he refuses to shake his son’s hand.

Coralee reflects on her relationship with the Colonel. Their affair started when the Colonel was married to a White woman. The Colonel and his wife never had children, and his wife died young.