Identical twins Desiree and Stella Vignes spend their childhood in the small rural village of Mallard, Louisiana, in the early 1950s. Mallard was founded by one of their ancestors who sought to create a haven for mixed-race people like himself. The residents of the town all possess fair complexions, light-colored eyes, and straight hair. Any of them could easily be mistaken for a Caucasian. Proud of their fair coloring, the villagers look down on dark-skinned Black people and anybody who marries one.

At the age of 16, Desiree and Stella will be forced to quit school to help their mother make ends meet by going to work as housemaids. Imaginative Desiree has always dreamed of being an actress, while practical Stella wishes to teach school. Wanting to create a better future for themselves, the girls run away to New Orleans in August 1954.

Eventually, Stella disappears, and Desiree goes to Washington, DC, where she finds work analyzing fingerprints for the government. She soon meets a dark-skinned Black lawyer named Sam and marries him. A few years into their marriage, Sam begins to beat Desiree. They have a daughter named Jude, who is dark-skinned like her father. Desiree thinks, “A different woman might have been disappointed by how little her own daughter resembled her, but she only felt grateful.