The market is coming to an end and the Chief of a hamlet in the town of Nnewi is looking forward to sitting in his Obi and knocking down a gallon of palm wine. He arrives to find the gourd in his third wife’s hut, his son and his half-sister lying side by side, both naked and asleep. The Chief knew the brother and sister violated each other. As Chief, he must cleanse the abomination staring him in the face or die a horrible death keeping the secret from the rest of the town. That midnight, he summons the village elders to tell them what his eyes had seen. When morning comes, brother and sister are ceremoniously buried alive.

2011: New Orleans, Louisiana. 150 years after their horrible deaths, or so it seems, brother and sister, Obijiaku and Nkolika, reemerge. Both could have passed through a wormhole to leave Old World Africa for New World America. They take up residence in Brooksville Forest Cemetery, in the very tombs where Mr. and Mrs. Somersby, New Orleans’ richest couple, are buried.