In a cross between fantasy and realism, Roots Four Zero is about a fourteen-year-old slave girl called Zero. Her master named her Zero because he thought of her as a nothing. One day Zero finally found the courage to run away and decided to find her roots. She enters a world of the unknown and the unsafe as a fugitive slave. She soon makes friends with a beautiful and benevolent butterfly lady named Azina who shows her how to find her roots in the north with the help of the Underground Railroad. Azina instructs her on how to locate the mysterious but very powerful town Griot to help her and her new found runaway companions find their essence.