Beatrice Chancy is set in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia in the year 1801. Beatrice is the daughter of a black slave woman who was raped by her white master. Raised in the master's household, Beatrice is beautiful, clever, kind and cultured - her father's prize possesion. As her story opens, Beatrice is sixteen and freshly returned from a convent school where she was sent "to copy white ladies' ways." Her declaration of love for a slave sparks tension that culminates in a monstrous act: the rape of Beatrice by her own father, Francis Chancy. From here, violence begets violence until Chancy is killed and Beatrice is hanged for his death.