The title of the novel and the titles of its parts come from a classic nursery rhyme cited in the novel’s epigraph: “To Market, to Market / To buy a Plum Bun; / Home again, Home again, / Market is done.” While other lines of the rhyme refer to hogs and hens at market, Fauset uses the lines about a plum bun—a sweet roll containing prunes—to suggest that what is being bought (and sold) in the novel is something a frivolous dessert. It could also be construed as a sexual innuendo, in that “plum” also indicates desirability: Angela is an attractive catch, a prize to be conquered.

The novel begins with “Part 1: Home,” wherein the reader discovers Angela’s background and basic character traits, her yearning for something more ambitious than what she finds in suburban Philadelphia. Here she also learns about racism and injustice, further compelling her to leave (though, sadly, she discovers more of the same). In “Part 2: Market,” she moves to New York where she will be “on the market,” in the slangy romantic and sexual sense. “Part 3: Plum Bun” details her affair with Roger, explicitly objectifying Angela as a “sweet treat,” a sexual trophy for Roger.