Lucy Bosman is a shrewd business woman in a day and time not too amenable to the dreams and desires of women - especially colored women. The widow of an ex-slave and well-educated, the mulatto woman had great plans to start over and make a life for herself when she left her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee and headed further South in the spring of 1860. Two years later, Lucy is planted firmly in Richmond, Virginia, running a successful business while passing as a white woman and avoiding the personal attentions and promises of love by plantation owner, Thomas Parker. She has managed to keep her identity a secret from the town and Thomas, but the looming Civil War threatens to change everything. In The Secret Life of Lucy Bosman, nothing is safe from the destruction of war and secrets. Not even the dreams and heart of a single mulatto woman.