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A Savannah native approaching retirement from a medical career returns home to write his sabbatical book. An encounter with Mae, a mysterious Gullah woman, takes him into magical adventures covering almost 3 centuries based in the landmarks of his hometown. The sights, sounds, history, and smells of Savannah are irresistible, and qualify the town as a full-fledged character in this story. He ventures to partake of some of Mae’s root doctor tea and is propelled into dreamscapes that blur time and reality. During one of these walkabouts, he meets the biracial healer Ann on the grounds of the Bethesda orphanage on the Savannah coast in 1757. When he is faced with saving the Habersham family from a raging fever, Ann leads him to an understanding of her particular blend of healing. She is a product of her mother’s Gullah hoodoo system brought from West Africa and her Indigenous American father’s skills using the Great Spirit’s natural gifts.
The urgency to save the Habersham family in the big house is then compounded by the realization that there is a large infirmary full of orphaned children with the fever. Ann holds the key to treating them, but to accept her truths he must first fully embrace the West African healing tradition, including the fire ritual. His way is further narrowed by the need to appease the spirit of each living thing as explained to Ann by her father. This leads to an internal journey guided by the doctor’s experiences of the power of empathy with his patients and his own father. He wanders among stories from practice and childhood experiences, and finally Ann provides the needed direction. His traditional training as a family doctor might qualify him as a hoodoo doctor and his Catholic upbringing provides the needed convergence for these two colleagues to connect on a spiritual level. Their collaboration starts slowly and builds to a surprising climax with the intertwining of all 3 healing traditions.
