Written by Charmaine Wilkerson, Good Dirt (2025) explores the legacies of family history, the lingering impacts of trauma, and the human ability to persevere despite tragedy and shape a new identity in the face of loss. The interwoven narratives are tied together by the character of Moses, an enslaved potter who makes a stoneware jar that becomes the beloved artifact of the Freeman clan throughout many generations. In 2000, the jar is shattered during a robbery that results in the murder of 15-year-old Baz Freeman. Years later, when Ebby Freeman’s heart is shattered again by her ex-fiancé, she removes to France on a journey of self-examination that leads to discoveries about forgiveness, passion, and piecing together what is broken.

Wilkerson is also the author of the New York Times best-selling novel Black Cake, which won several notable accolades and was adapted as a series for Hulu. With Good Dirt, Wilkerson’s second literary novel, the author weaves a complex tale that executes a broader contemplation of the contributions of African Americans to US history.

This guide refers to the first hardcover edition published by Ballantine in 2025.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of sexual violence, sexual content, physical abuse, rape, child death, graphic violence, death by suicide, animal cruelty, pregnancy loss, and racism. In particular, this guide discusses enslavement.

Language Note: Good Dirt sometimes uses the term “slave” to refer to enslaved Africans. This study guide reproduces this language only in quotations.

Plot Summary

The Prologue introduces the Freeman family, which consists of parents Ed and Soh, as well as their children, Ebby and Baz. The family has an old stoneware jar that is their prized heirloom. (Nicknamed “Old Mo,” the jar was the possession of a formerly enslaved Freeman ancestor when he gained his freedom, established a new life in Massachusetts, and became the head of a prosperous and prominent African American New England family.)

The narrative relates the moment that when 15-year-old Baz Freeman is shot and killed by robbers, and Old Mo falls and shatters. Ebby, who is only 10 years old, witnesses everything.

Nineteen years later, Ebby still feels like her life has been defined by the tragedy of Baz’s murder. Her fiancé, Henry Pepper, jilts her on their wedding day. Several months later, still heartbroken, Ebby escapes to a small village in France, only for Henry to show up with his new girlfriend, Avery. Seeing Henry again stirs up old feelings, but when Henry suddenly goes missing, Ebby forms a tentative alliance with Avery and discovers that the two women have more in common than their history with Henry Pepper.

Alternating chapters reach back to the 19th century to illuminate the history of the Freeman family and their beloved jar, which is called Old Mo because of the initials “MO” that its creator inscribed upon it. The narrative relates that in 1803, a woman named Kandia is kidnapped from her African village, enslaved, and taken to Barbados, where she gives birth to a son named Moses.

Later, Moses is sent to South Carolina, where he is put to work on the pottery at the Oldham farm. He marries a woman named Flora and is happy for a time, until Flora dies suddenly. Another young woman of whom Moses becomes fond, Betsey, is raped and then killed by Master Oldham’s nephew. Hurt and angry, Moses writes a phrase into a piece of clay; he later fires the inscription and attaches it to the bottom of one of his large storage jars. When Flora’s younger brother, Willis, sees this inscription, he is inspired to leave the plantation. Taking the jar, Willis stows away on a ship heading north.

The narrative returns to the present. Henry reappears, and he and Ebby clear the air between them. Henry admits that he couldn’t handle the ways in which Ebby’s trauma over the death of her brother still manifests in her life. Ebby lingers in France for a time and grows attracted to a new man, Robert. However, she knows that she must return to the US, if for no other reason than to reconnect with her parents, Ed and Soh.

While Soh has managed to keep going after losing Baz, Ed has been more distant lately. Ed, who worries that Soh blames him for wanting to move to the house where their son was killed, leaves abruptly, rendering Soh confused and upset.

Ebby holds her own guilt from the day of Baz’s death; she heard the robbers when they entered the house and knows that they were there to steal the jar. Baz tried to stop them and was shot for his troubles. Now, Ebby feels responsible for Baz’s death because she and Baz weren’t supposed to be in the house at that time; they were only there because Ebby persuaded Baz to play one more game of hide-and-seek.

While chapters from the present-day story briefly follow Henry and Avery as they strike out in different directions and finally decide to pursue their individual passions, the Freeman family is finally healed when Ed reveals that he has repaired Old Mo.

Flashbacks to the earlier timeline reveal that Willis, who took the name Edward Freeman, met and married the daughter of a chieftain, Aquinnah, and had children with her. Old Mo stood in the Freeman family kitchen for years, serving as a way station to exchange messages with others who were seeking paths to the North and to freedom. After the Civil War, Willis’s sons worked on whaling ships for a time, then returned to Massachusetts and continued expanding the prosperity of the Freeman family.

Soh’s family history also is full of notable achievements; her father was a member of the Tuskegee airmen, and her mother was one of the first African American librarians in the state. Old Mo stands now as a symbol of all that the family has accomplished and survived, and while they cannot bring Baz back to life, the Freemans decide that it is time to share Old Mo with the world.

Ebby enlists Henry’s help to take photographs of Old Mo as the Freemans gather support and find a special museum gallery dedicated to Old Mo and the Freeman family history, which constitutes a valuable piece of American history. Once the COVID-19 lockdown ends, the family welcomes visitors to the gallery, and Ebby sees Avery again. Though she still misses Baz, Ebby feels optimistic about her new relationship with Robert and revels in the sense of agency she has in her own life.

The Epilogue flashes back to Moses’s life and reveals that he survived the war, received his freedom, and began his own pottery business, looking forward to the future despite all that he lost.