Two bold, utopic communities are at the heart of Ayana Mathiss searing follow-up to her bestselling debut,The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Bonaparte, Alabamaonce 10,000 glorious Black-owned acresis now a ghost town vanishing to depopulation, crooked developers, and an eerie mist closing in on its shoreline. Dutchess Carson, Bonaparte’s fiery, tough-talking protector, fights to keep its remaining one thousand acres in the hands of the last five residents. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, her estranged daughter Ava is drawn into Arka seductive, radical group with a commitment to Black self-determination in the spirit of the Black Panthers and MOVE, with a dash of the Weather Undergrounds violent zeal. Avas eleven-year-old son Toussaint wants outhis future awaits him on his grandmothers land, where the sounds of cicada and frog song might save him if only he can make it there.