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Slavery in Southeastern Kentucky: A Buried History, uncovers and substantiates the history of enslavement in nine counties: Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Magoffin, Perry, Pike and Wolfe. Today, the average African American population in these counties is less than 2%. The veil of secrecy and denial regarding slavery in this area lifts, and we begin to see and know the slaves who were held in bondage until the Civil War emancipated them.

In 1889, Ila Mae Tipton lives on a farm with her family in Montgomery County, Kentucky. Her brother Matt makes a decision to raise and breed horses to bring their family out of poverty. Ila plays the role of fine lady. Their new neighbor, Robson Blake, is from England. Ila senses that he has some secret he is keeping. She and Matt go to Morpeth, England to uncover that secret. A man named Levi Nash waits for her, hoping she will return again to being the woman he needs her to be.

Nicatie Shanahan lives in Floyd County, Kentucky. The year is 1836. She is betrothed to Tom McClure. When he betrays her by marrying her cousin, she tries to heal by moving into the cave on her family's farm. She has always known that she has Indian ancestry, but believes she will never have proof. And then she goes to Virginia. By the time she returns, her life has changed in ways she never could have imagined.