A dressmaker, Trinita Kalinda, with her family and fellow villagers embark on a quest to regain lands leased by the British to the Americans in 1941. With 99-year leases in hand, the Americans descend upon Trinidad and spread their presence Island-wide. Coleman Porter Jr., an American soldier, falls in love with Trinita and proposes to her. She accepts, and a wedding date is set. Unfortunately, before they could be married, Coleman becomes a suspect in the killing of a police constable. The homicide raises questions about other unsolved murders in Bittervillage, the Kalindas' home. Sergeant Borrows is brutal in his quest to find the killer of Constable Henry. With Coleman's freedom in doubt, two village men compete for Trinita's love. One, Sonny Dimples, is also a murder suspect. Despite murder and romantic travail, Trinita along with fellow villagers continue their quest for the lands they once owned. With the realization that success would come only from communal effort, they embark on a foolhardy and dangerous plan to take by force Wasp Hill, the lands leased to the Americans in 1941, and seemingly abandoned on their departure from Trinidad. The quest is reinvigorated when talk of an independent Trinidad and Tobago fills the air. The villagers appeal to Moriah Battler, a rising politician, for help. Trinita joins the Battler Party and is hired as a recruiter. In this position, she gains confidence and rallies the community of Bittervillage to join the Battler Party, with the hope that a Battler win would result in the return of their land. Their hopes crash when a brilliant Oxford graduate, Hedrick Augustus Mellions, appears on the political landscape of Trinidad and Tobago and in elections obliterates the Battler Party. The Battlerites react violently. In this village quest, we meet Mother Oreena, head of the illegal Shouter Baptist Church; Papa Ogun, obeah man; Uncle Labrea, leader of the local Shango community; Saga, the razor man, Mr. Supposing Now, and others. The Dressmaker is romance, murder, religious intolerance, assassination; a magical tapestry awaiting the adventurous reader.