In the fictional, pre-colonial African kingdom of Orϊsha, 17-year-old Zélie waits for Mama Agba’s to select someone to fight against Yemi as part of a self-defense graduation ceremony. Zélie is a divîner, a person with latent magical abilities, as characterized by her white hair, and this causes her to be stigmatized. Mama Agba forces Zélie to bow to Yemi as a sign of respect, and the two face off with staffs. When Yemi calls Zélie a maggot, the divîner breaks the designated exercise and the two girls fight furiously. Zélie is about to win when Bisi, another divîner, arrives and tearfully tells Mama Agba that “they” are coming. The girls hide the evidence of their fighting and replace it with sewing materials and mannequins. Zélie recognizes the uniformed guards who arrive as soldiers of King Saran. The men notify Mama Agba that the tax for apprenticing and employing divîners, the “maggot rates,” have increased (9).

Zélie protests that the guards are robbing them before realizing that the lead soldier carries a weapon made of majacite, a metal used to harm magical people. Mama Agba gives the man all her money, but he begins to assault Zélie until Mama Agba and the other soldier intercede.