Michel writes against a long habit of describing Haitian religion as sorcery, fetishism or blood magic, and sets out to restate what Vodou actually holds. Her emphasis falls on its humanism, its sense of community, and the way its ethical content passes between generations without a book, a clergy or a creed.

Vodou, on this account, is less a set of doctrines than a way of organising the whole of life. It offers few absolutes, yet those who serve the spirits prize balance, justice, patience, forgiveness and respect for elders much as members of the scriptural religions do, and they see no contradiction between that service and being good Catholics.

Drawing on Bellegarde-Smith, Courlander, Karen McCarthy Brown and others, Michel presents the religion as African in origin and Creole in formation, pushing up from below rather than imposed from above, and functioning as a practical resource for people living with scarcity and repression.