Celia's mother died bringing her into the world - when one soul flies in, another flies out, her aunt Tassi says. So she lives in Black Rock, Tobago, with her cousins and Tassi's second husband Roman, a man so sly he could crawl under a snake's belly on stilts. Celia thinks he's the devil, so when he does something that proves her right, she runs away to Trinidad and a new life in service.