The story opens in a 2022 Brooklyn church, where Haddy is contemplative upon hearing the pastor speak of God's greatest gift, eternal life, freely given not only to people of faith in Him, but to children lost before they're born. When Haddy passes away in her sleep that night, angel Jonathan transports her spirit to heaven, where she meets Jesus, anxious about meeting the two children she had never known.

Jesus explains her children know they once dwelled in the other world, but have no memory of it. He suggests she tell them first about her troubled life and later repentance, and then, their earthly losses. Jonathan introduces Haddy to her unknowing children, Naomi (Black) and Caleb (mixed race). They're eager to learn about her life in the "other world." Thus begins Haddy's story, in flashbacks.

The first 77 years of Haddy's long life are filled with glimmers of hope, yet mostly losses and bitterness:

• 1926 – Silver Lake, NJ – At age 5, Haddy lives in poverty, mesmerized by the violin music in church. Her first brush with racism comes when she and her brother, Isaac, happen upon a historical meeting of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan, where Margaret Sanger speaks of "human weeds." Later that day, her drunken father drowns her new puppies and kills her mother.
• 1940 – Moncks Corner, SC – At age 19, she is given free contraceptives through Sanger's poorly named "Negro Project," meant to suppress the Black population. Drunk, after playing her fiddle in a bar, she sleeps with her friend Daisy's love interest, Nate. She suffers a botched abortion, is abandoned by Nate, and loses the angry Daisy.
• 1959 – Brooklyn, NY – Haddy lives with Isaac in the parsonage of the church where he serves as pastor, becoming a classical violinist. By default, she founds a maternity home with midwifery support in the parsonage, dubbed "Haddy's House," which draws an effort to shut it down by her old friend Daisy, now a Planned Parenthood executive. Yet she's excited upon meeting the wealthy yet seemingly depressed White OBGYN, Seth, who invites her to a picnic.

In heaven, at the midpoint of the story, Haddy's children are delighted when Seth's spirit arrives. He joins Haddy in a continuing flashback to the remainder of their lives.

• Haddy and Seth become mixed-race lovers, despite racial condescension from both Black and White folks. Haddy suffers a miscarriage and confesses her botched teenage abortion. Seth deserts her, leaving Haddy in the bitter belief it's due to her Black race. Broken, Seth attends seminary and later writes a book about the personhood of the unborn.
• 1960 – 1998 – With plenty of money from the church, Haddy develops many more maternity homes over the ensuing years and becomes a pro-life leader after the Roe v. Wade legislation. Yet she lives in conflict with Daisy and Planned Parenthood.
• Ready to retire at age 77, Haddy completes the flagship she's dreamed of: the first Pregnancy Resource Center in Brooklyn, offering a host of services to pregnant disadvantaged women. However, she's called to the emergency room by Seth, 82, now 48 years after he deserted her. He tells her he had always loved her, alluding to a terrible mistake before dying.

Haddy is inconsolable over the losses of her life. Isaac reveals the source of funding for Haddy's House expansions the 40 years since her miscarriage was not the church, but Seth's medical practice and patents. She's shocked, having always believed he left her over her Black race. Isaac condemns her endless bitterness and asks if she's ever forgiven herself for her abortion and related miscarriage, to which she melts down. He suggests an abortion recovery retreat, where she releasing her bitterness and accepts Christ.

Daisy challenges Haddy to a TV debate around the abortion issue. Haddy accepts, preparing with the study of Seth's best seller after seminary, entitled "The Personhood of the Unborn." It's a highly contentious debate, ending when Daisy accuses Haddy of pro-life hypocrisy given her own teenage abortion. A year later, Haddy visits Daisy on her death bed, apologizing about Nate and excited about her new hope in Jesus.

Naomi and Caleb thank Haddy and Seth for all they had learned about the "other world." Yet Caleb becomes curious about Haddy and Seth's reserved demeanor with each other, asking what had brought them both to visit at the same time. Seth reveals that when Haddy had her miscarriage and confessed her 1939 botched abortion, he realized that it was he, as a nearby financially strained first-year medical student, who had performed the abortion with her face obscured by a pillow and his with a surgical mask.

Haddy is horrified, telling Naomi that she was the child that had been aborted. Caleb realizes that he was Haddy and Seth's child lost 15 years later in the miscarriage. Jonathan tells the spirits of Haddy's traumatized children that Haddy and Seth had bought the lies of the world, yet loved them dearly, and they could all live together for eternity. Haddy tells Seth he should have confessed back when she miscarried, for they could have repented together, been married, and adopted children.

In a glorious reunion, they all join the spirits of Mama, Jenny, Nate, Daisy, and Isaac with his wife. Naomi and Caleb praise dance and sing, worshiping Jesus.