Ayodele has just turned eighteen and has decided, having now reached womanhood, that the time is right to lose her virginity. She's drawn up a shortlist: Reuben, the failsafe; An, a long-admired schoolfriend; Frederick Adams, the 42-year-old, soon-to-be-pot-bellied father of her best friend. What she doesn't know is that her choice of suitor will have a drastic effect on the rest of her life.

Based off of the bestselling author's family history, this novel tells the story of Kunta Kinte, who is sold into slavery in the United States where he and his descendants live through major historic events.

This book is an autobiographical account of one man's struggle to save his daughter from being taken to the bush; a struggle that defies a harmful traditional practice and defective constructions of normality. Perhaps the first to articulate the battle against Female Genital Mutilation from an African male perspective.