Effia and Esi are half- sisters born in 18th century Ghana.    A woman named Maame is the mother of the both girls neither sister is aware of the other but both were born to powerful men but both were born to powerful men and are looking forward to happy lives among their people. Chance, however, decides otherwise. Effia is given in marriage to the British governor at Cape Coast Castle, a kind man who is nonetheless involved in lucrative and brutal transatlantic slave trade. Esi  is captured during an attack on her village and thrown into a dungeon in the same castle where her sister lives, to be sold to slavery.