Content Warning: This section depicts sexual assault, anti-gay bias, anti-Black racism, lynching, intimate partner violence, graphic violence, murder, termination of a pregnancy, and death by suicide. The source text uses the period-specific term “colored” to refer to Black characters and employs period-specific language to describe sexual orientation, mental health, and intellectual disability.

On a cold night in January 1917, Maggie and Hubert, who got married that afternoon, discuss how to find a man to get Maggie pregnant. They believe that having a baby will make theirs look like a “real” marriage (3), but Maggie detests the thought of having sex with anyone, and Hubert, who is attracted to men, refuses to have sex with a woman. Maggie is 17, Hubert is 20, and they have known each other since they were children. They both want a child, but Maggie needs time to reconcile herself to the idea of having sex with a man she doesn’t know. They agree on finding someone outside their town of Lexington, Alabama, and discuss the possibilities while in bed at their home.

Maggie doesn’t want to do anything to ruin her relationship with Hubert; for one thing, he is her only close friend. Her father abuses alcohol and her mother was previously a sex worker, and Maggie has received criticism and teasing her whole life because of that.