Summary

There are two sisters, Celie and Nettie. Their Pa abuses and rapes Celie, then takes away her babies and sells them. He sells Celie to Albert for marriage, Albert abuses her, too. He only wants her for sex, to clean his house, take care of his four children, and to work out in his fields. Nettie ends up running away from Pa's house and moving in with a reverend, his wife, and their adopted children. Celie and Nettie promise to stay in touch but it doesn't exactly work out.
Albert brings his old lover in to the house because she's sick and needs help. Her name is Shug Avery. She's famous, rich, and beautiful. Celie and Shug fall in love. Celie is happy for once in her life. Together they found out that Albert had been keeping all the letters Celie has been receiving from Nettie with out knowing it. She realizes she's tired of being abused and starts to stand up for herself. So she leaves Albert and moves to Memphis with Shug to start a new life.
Celie learns quite a bit through the letters from her sister like how her Pa is actually her stepfather, Nettie is living in Africa because of a missionary trip and the man that Nettie is staying with, Reverend Samuel, has adopted both of Celie's children. She learns that their Pa has passed away and that the house he lived in actually belonged to Celie and Nettie because he wanted their inheritance rights since their mother passed away. So once their Pa died Celie got ownership of the house and moved there for a while.
During this time Nettie and Samuel marry and get ready to come back to America, and Adam (Celie's son) marries Tashi, an Olinka village girl. Celie and Albert eventually start getting along. She ends up opening her own clothing store. Nettie returns to America with her new family and surprises Celie by pulling up her driveway in a nice car. By the end of the book, Celie is emotionally drained but exhilarated by the reunion with her sister and notes that though she and Nettie are now old, she has never in her life felt younger.