"That's history. It happened whether it offends you or not."

We are intruded to Dana, a woman dealing with losing her forearm; it is evident that Dana has been through something traumatic. In the next chapter, it is revealed that Dana, for reasons unknown, can shift through time. The first time, Dana witnesses a small boy drowning. After saving the young boy, Dana is faced with a shotgun before finding herself back in 1976.

This shift leaves Dana confused and scared as she doesn't understand the reason for her change through time. However, within a few days, Dana finds herself saving the boy again, this time after he set fire to his house drapes. After rescuing the young boy, Rufus Weylin, Dana is told she is at the Weylin plantation in 1815; after this reveal, Dana realizes that Rufus Weylin is one of her descendants.

After Dana saves Rufus from being killed, Isaac, Alice Greenwood's, another one of Dana's descendants, husband, it's after saving Rufus's life that Dana pieces together the sexual assault that Rufus inflicted on Alice. After learning of this, Dana advises Rufus to let Alice live her life with her husband. Dana's advice goes ignored by Rufus as he buys Alice after she is caught and sold. Rufus's dependency on Dana results in Dana's involvement with her existence. Rufus demands that Dana advises Alice to go to him without a fight. Knowing that her existence is wrapped in this sexual enslavement, she doesn't pressure Alice to go to Rufus and tells her it is her decision. In the end, Alice, traumatized by her experience with the slave catchers, goes to Rufus while dealing with the mental toll it takes on her. The situation is bizarre, especially since Rufus threatens not to send her letters to Kevin unless Alice accepts him. This whole conversation is uncomfortable, and Dana, in the end, doesn't feel any malice or view him negatively as Rufus has made her an accomplice in just one of his many violent actions.

Even as Dana is trying to make sense of her lineage and the dark nature of her linage, the looming danger of slavery is always apparent for Dana. The severe beatings to the mental toll of trying to survive causes Dana from being too comfortable at the Weylin Plantation and shows that slavery, regardless of the severity towards a slave the institution of slavery is inherently evil. This plagues Dana as she is envied by others and considered a traitor by other slaves, which results in her being treated as an "other" by both the slaves and slave owners. The complexity of slavery for people's mental state is rampant throughout the novel; as Dana is aware of the horrors of slavery, those horrors rarely touch her, and when they do, she is told this is their reality, and thus she is helpless. The helplessness weights on Dana, but this also has her feeling guilt as she can go back to her form of freedom but mentality she isn't free from the horrors she endured.

Kindred is a book about a black woman's complex role during slavery. As she is a primary factor in her existence, that existence depends on the sexual enslavement of her ancestor. It is a dark origin that she has to live with after returning to 1976. It is an excellent book regarding the horrors of slavery and the dealings with those horrors in the present day.