Even though this novel is set in the last century there are many issues that are still just as relevant in today's world...race, sexism, police brutality, class. This book follows Mr. Sitwell and Jennie who are servants for a white family whose money has almost run out. The first part of the book covers the family who finds an investor to produce the cook's BBQ sauce using a caricature of Mr. Sitwell on the bottle that humiliates and angers him. He becomes known as The Rib King and this event sets into motion a chain of violent events. Skip forward a decade later and the second half of the book is about Jennie who is now a business owner attempting to mass market a salve that she created. She is having trouble selling this though because she once worked with the now infamous Rib King. I really liked the character of Jennie but the book was very slow in the beginning and the ending came too fast.