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Intro
Adunni is a teenage girl living in in Ikati, a small, rural village in Nigeria. One day, Papa informs her that he has arranged for her to be sold as a wife to a much older man, Morufu. Adunni’s family has fallen on hard times since Mama’s death, and Morufu has agreed to pay the family’s rent money and provide them with food in exchange for Adunni’s hand in marriage. The news shocks Adunni—her biggest dream in life is to get an education and become a teacher, and she knows that the marriage will put her dream further out of reach. Leaving her family’s compound to marry Morufu also means that she’ll have to abandon her brother Kayus, with whom she is very close.
Regardless of Adunni’s hesitations, the marriage proceeds, and Adunni becomes Morufu’s third bride. She moves out of her family’s compound and into Morufu’s house, where she must live with her new husband and his other wives. Labake, the first wife, is cruel and antagonizes Adunni whenever she can. The second (and very pregnant) wife, Khadija, shows Adunni kindness and acts as a motherly figure. Despite Khadija’s kindness, though, life in Morufu’s house is traumatic. Morufu has a horrible temper, beats his children, and tyrannizes his wives. He also rapes Adunni on a regular basis, determined to impregnate her so that she can birth him a son.
Khadija grows nervous when her pregnancy begins to show signs of complications, and she confesses to Adunni that the baby is not Morufu’s. The father is Bamidele, a man from Khadija’s home village with whom she had a love affair before her father sold her to Morufu. She and Bamidele remained in love and eventually resumed their romance, resulting in the pregnancy. But Bamidele’s family believes that they are cursed: supposedly, if a pregnant woman in the family doesn’t bathe in a river and wash with a special soap, she and the baby will die in childbirth. Khadija believes that she and her unborn baby have fallen victim to this curse.
Khadija and Adunni sneak out to Kere village to meet Bamidele and perform the special bath. Bamidele acts concerned and helpful at first but ends up leaving them at the river in order to protect his own reputation, as he is now married and expecting a legitimate child with his wife. Khadija dies in childbirth, abandoned by her lover.
Fearing that she will be held responsible for Khadija’s death, Adunni runs away. She seeks refuge with a poor, sickly woman named Iya, whom Adunni’s mother used to help. Iya puts Adunni in touch with her brother, Kola, who she says will find Adunni a job in Lagos. In reality, Kola operates as a trafficker and secretly sells Adunni as an indentured servant to Big Madam, a rich businesswoman who owns a fabric shop.
Adunni works long, grueling hours as a housemaid, and Big Madam physically and mentally abuses her. Big Madam’s husband, Big Daddy, is an unemployed alcoholic and a philanderer. He repeatedly tries to coerce Adunni into a sexual relationship in exchange for his “protection” against Big Madam’s beatings, though Adunni manages to avoid his advances. Adunni also befriends Big Madam’s chef, Kofi, who looks out for her. Recognizing Adunni’s desire for an education, Kofi tells Adunni about a scholarship for female domestic servants and urges her to apply.
Shortly after her arrival at Big Madam’s, Adunni learns about Rebecca, the former housemaid who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, after discovering Rebecca’s waist beads in her room. Nobody seems to know exactly what happened to Rebecca, though people speculate that she might have run away with a boyfriend. People seem hesitant to discuss Rebecca, and Big Madam, in particular, seems eager to change the subject whenever Rebecca comes up in conversation. Rebecca’s life and disappearance fascinate Adunni, and she makes it her goal to uncover the truth.
One day, at a social event for the neighborhood wives’ association hosted at Big Madam’s house, Adunni meets Big Madam’s neighbor Ms. Tia. Unlike Big Madam and the other women in the group, Ms. Tia is kind, genuine, and seemingly unconcerned with material wealth. She works at the Lagos Environmental Consultancy and lives with her husband, Kenneth Dada, a fertility doctor. Ms. Tia takes Adunni under her wing, agreeing to serve as a character reference for Adunni’s scholarship and offering to teach her English to improve her chances of winning the scholarship.
Adunni and Ms. Tia develop a meaningful relationship over the course of their lessons together and begin to confide in each other: Adunni tells Ms. Tia about her troubled past, and Ms. Tia tells Adunni about her strained relationship with Ms. Tia’s mother. Their relationship initially made Ms. Tia not want children, though now she does want to try for a baby.
When Ms. Tia and her husband have trouble conceiving a child, doctor mama (Kenneth’s mother) arranges for Ms. Tia to undergo a bathing ritual that is supposed to promote fertility. The ritual, which Adunni witnesses, turns out to be incredibly violent and involves Ms. Tia being flogged with broomsticks.
One day, Adunni attends a church service with the other housemaids and learns from Chisom, the housemaid of Big Madam’s friend, Caroline Bankole, that Rebecca supposedly gained weight and talked about getting married right before she disappeared. Later that day, Adunni mentions Rebecca to Abu, Big Madam’s driver, and Abu tells her that he found a note hidden in the car after Rebecca disappeared. The note, written by Rebecca and left behind in the event that something happened to her, reveals that Rebecca was pregnant with Big Daddy’s child, and that Big Daddy gave her something that was supposed to induce a miscarriage. Adunni now realizes the extent of Big Daddy’s treachery.
Later that night, Big Daddy comes to Adunni’s room and tries to rape her. She manages to temporarily free herself, at which point Big Madam walks in on the scene. More upsetting to Big Madam than Adunni’s attempted rape is the caller ID on Big Daddy’s ringing phone, which reveals that Big Daddy is having an affair with Caroline Bankole.
Big Madam kicks Big Daddy out of the house and tells Adunni about her role in Rebecca’s disappearance: Big Madam found out about the pregnancy and attempted miscarriage, took Rebecca to the doctor, and gave her money to leave and never return.
Shortly after these revelations come to light, Ms. Tia informs Adunni that she has won the scholarship and can stop working as a housemaid, which Big Madam allows. Ms. Tia arrives to take Adunni away from Big Madam’s once for all, and Adunni feels hopeful as she walks through the iron gates of her employer’s house and toward her new life of education and freedom.
