It's the mid-1800's in colonial Puerto Rico. Fela is brought from Africa to work as a seamstress at a sugar plantation. Her former mistress had her tongue cut out, so she cannot speak. But she is very skilled with a needle and thread, a talent her new mistress will happily exploit. Fela carries a special stone with her; before she and her husband were separated, they performed a tribal ceremony which poured the essence of their unborn child into the stone. She is biding her time, waiting for the chance to finish what she started. So when the plantation owner approaches her, Fela allows him to act out his desires. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to Mati, who will become a powerful curandera.

Such is the beginning of this matriarchy. The stone becomes meaningful to each of the women, pulling them through times of crisis. Finally, Carisa, born and raised in New York City, becomes the one to write down the stories of her family, many of them forgotten or shifted aside, and repair the hurts of the past.