It is the mid-1800s. At sweet home in Kentucky. An era is ending as slavery comes under attack from the abolitionists. The worlds of Halle and Paul D. are to be destroyed in a cataclysm of torment and agony. The world of Sethe, however, is to turn from one of love to one of violence and death - the death of Sethe's baby daughter. Beloved. Whose name is the single word on the tombstone, who died at her mother's hands, and who will return to claim retribution.