Moody's autobiography opens onto her early life on a plantation with her mother, Toosweet, her father, Diddly, and her younger sister, Adline. At the time, she was called Essie Mae. Her uncle, George Lee, who was eight years old at the time, would watch over five-year-old Essie Mae and one-year-old Adline while their parents went to work. George Lee would neglect and abuse the girls. He was eventually dismissed from his babysitting duties after he started a fire in Essie Mae's family's two-bedroom shack. Essie's parents' relationship began to unravel after Diddly's friend, Bush, died and Diddly began seeing a lot more of Bush's wife, Florence. He began having an affair while Essie's mother was pregnant with their third child, Junior. Toosweet eventually left Diddly, taking her children with her, and moved in with their Aunt Cindy. They stayed with her until Essie Mae's mother found a better job and moved them into a new home.