Prayer/Prayer of Death

It's the early 1960s in the town of Eve's Bayou, Louisiana. Named after the same ancestor after which the town itself is named, 10-year-old Eve Batiste comes from an affluent and happy Creole family; her father, Louis Batiste, is the town's Black physician. Arguably, Eve's biggest issue in life is middle-child syndrome, thinking that Louis pays more attention to 14-year-old Cisely--dancing with her instead of Eve at parties--and that their mother Roz over-coddles their 9-year-old brother Poe. At one of these parties at the beginning of the summer, Eve suddenly awakens from sleep and witnesses something "adult" that her 10-year-old mind can only half-comprehend. As the summer progresses, the bigger picture of what Eve witnessed becomes the elephant in the room among most of the family, which is only exacerbated by an incident with a suddenly-sullen Cisely. The family goings-on are set among the continuing tragedy that besets Louis' "crazy" sister (as he sees her), "psychic counselor" Mozelle Batiste Delacroix, who becomes widowed for the third time, leading to thoughts and official prognostications that she is cursed when it comes to marriage despite being in love with all three of her husbands.