M.E. Torrey’s Fox Creek is a sprawling novel fusing a scholarly eye for detail with moving humanity and depth.

The story begins in 1843, when Pierre Auguste Dominique, son of recently deceased French Creole sugar planter “Papa Léon,” is forced to liquidate his father’s assets and estate due to debt accrued over decades. Dominque sells his father’s black slaves, including 10-year-old Cyrus, who is brutally separated from his mother, and Monette, Papa Léon’s biracial daughter, whom Dominique sees as a mistake to be corrected.

The pair travel as chattel to New Orleans, where they’re ultimately bought by the proprietors of the Fox Creek Plantation in the Feliciana region of Louisiana. The Jenseys—father William, mother Sarah, children Kate and Breck—offer the two very separate lives on the plantation: Cyrus is sent to the fields, while Monette serves as French tutor to the children, even earning the affections of young Breck.

For Monette, the role seems agreeable at first, the trauma of the upheaval soothed by her seeming acceptance by the well-to-do Jenseys. But as the characters develop over years, the inhumanity of the slave trade is ever-present, and Monette must come to terms with her own status, her relationships with the Jenseys and her unbreakable bonds with Cyrus.

Torrey’s sprawling tale benefits from her careful historical eye. The author is detail-oriented, and that commitment helps the story feel immediate. (The level of detail may be daunting for casual readers, however; while the story launches immediately with the travails of Monette and Cyrus, Torrey takes her time painting the conflict that unrolls over years on the Fox Creek Plantation.)

Torrey’s narrative skill especially shines where she directly addresses the harsh realities of the era. Describing a New Orleans slave market, for example, her detail is unflinching and heartbreaking: “Male slaves in the prime of their lives, chains clinking…Adult females too, filthy but comely, sure to clean up smart with a little soap and water (as any savvy buyer would recognize). A handful of children, well-fed, bound to be favorites with the crowds.”

The story requires some patience, but the journey pays off nicely, ultimately revealing the durability of the purest kinds of human ties.