It is a love story--told in a series of letters from Davy Carr to Bob Fletcher, a friend in Harlem. The book is remarkable as the first epistolary novel in African-American literary history, and as an important contribution to the Harlem Renaissance. The novel also offers a sneak-peak look into the Jazz-infused 1920s, where this World War I veteran (Davy) must navigate the tumultuous waters of passion, as he researches the history of the slave trade in Washington DC.

"Previously published anonymously as The Letters of Davy Carr in The Messenger, from January 1925-June 1926"--T.p. verso.