"Ìwọ ni" is the Yorùbá expression for "You are the one". The novel discusses how evil people meet their Waterloo without righteous people having to lift a finger to avenge themselves. The righteous people in the novel deliberately refuse to strike back, leaving vengeance to God.
The events in the novel occur in 2 towns which are 3 days' walk apart.
Èyíàrà is a beautiful, humble and industrious young lady who is very popular in her hometown. She has a tragic flaw: stubbornness. Very few people can change her "Yes" to "No" or vice versa. Her parents are worried when she keeps postponing marriage, despite having many suitors. Èyíàrà's best friend and confidant is Fìkàwòkà (a wicked woman who is determined to turn Èyíàrà's wisdom into folly). Èyíàrà keeps warning her against wickedness but stays her friend!
An oracle says: (a) Èyíàrà's destined husband is in another town; (b)she will suffer a lot before attaining greatness; (c)one of her sons will become famous, if not a king; (d) she should beware of bad friends. Fìkàwòkà lies to Èyíàrà's parents that the oracle chose Pépélúwà (son of Èyíàrà's father's friend, Paríọlá), her most hated suitor who has bribed Fìkàwòkà to secure her for him. One day, Fìkàwòkà invites Èyíàrà to her house for a 2-day feast and plants Pépélúwà in Èyíàrà's room. He grabs Èyíàrà at night, deflowers her and becomes her husband according to the laws of their town (which forces a woman to marry whoever breaks her virginity). Things start turning sour for Èyíàrà after the marriage, which turns out childless. Fìkàwòkà, who keeps having children for her own husband, advises her to have children from an extramarital affair. Èyíàrà, though too wise to take that advice, doesn't argue with her.
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In another town about 3 days' walk from Èyíàrà's town lives a king's slave, Ikúbàsírí (renamed Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà by the king). Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà is handsome but very crafty and wicked. The king makes him his steward in order to appease him and protect himself. Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà judges many cases himself without consulting the king. The king's other queens hate Láwà, the favourite queen (whose father, Tetenise,helped the king ascend the throne before their marriage), for being the one the oracle said (just 19 days into her marriage!) will bear the next king (after a long barrenness!). They report her to Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà, who tries to get Tumbi (the past king's son and her own first cousin) to invite her for a family discussion & see her off to an ambush (where she will be killed). Tetenise meets Láwà and Tumbi before getting to the danger zone. The plot is foiled, the plotters killed and disabled (by Tetenise's men) and Tumbi later exiled. The king takes Láwà to live on his farm, where they meet occasionally. She gets pregnant there and bears a son, Tèmítọ́pẹ́ (her only child). The farm grows into a town because of Láwà's kind nature. One day, Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà goes to the farm to kill Láwà and her son. He sleeps off under a tree, only to be woken up by Tèmítọ́pẹ́, who was hunting. Tèmítọ́pẹ́ spares him (remembering that his parents told him to be wary of Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà but not to kill him) and takes him to his mother's hut. He stays with them, so he won't have to face his senders without having done the job.
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Èyíàrà has a trustworthy friend, Tòròníwà, who often advises her to abandon her revenge plans against Fìkàwòkà. While Fìkàwòkà distances herself from Èyíàrà to escape revenge, Èyíàrà sticks to her like a leech. One day, Èyíàrà invites Tòròníwà and Fìkàwòkà to come and get food for their children during a famine from her husband's farm. Knowing fully well there is a flood-prone river near the farm, she pretends to be ill before they arrive. Both decide to wait and care for her till she gets better but she sends Tòròníwà home to get her a certain drug. That same night after Tòròníwà left, heavy rains fall and the river becomes impassable for 15 days. Though Tòròníwà often cares for Fìkàwòkà's 2 children, one of them dies.
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When Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà confides in Tèmítọ́pẹ́ that his wickedness results from his being a slave who has no wife or progeny to benefit or suffer from his character, Tèmítọ́pẹ́ gives him a farm and tools and pays for his freedom. He gets him land to build a house on. His bad reputation, however, makes it difficult to get him a wife.
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Fìkàwòkà befriends another very wicked woman, Kerewu-ola (who is called Kéréwùú-ìkà or Wí-ìkà for her wickedness). They both decide to befriend Tòròníwà as well to get Èyíàrà. Tòròníwà regularly reveals their plans to Èyíàrà without appearing to do so. One day, they tell Tòròníwà to invite Èyíàrà to go to a farm with them and that they will send Tòròníwà home from there. When Tòròníwà tells Èyíàrà, she decides to play along. When the wicked duo start walking farther ahead and talking secretly, Èyíàrà goes into the bush "to defecate" and tells Tòròníwà to go home and raise the alarm after a fruitless search for her. Tòròníwà does so and the wicked duo are arrested and taken to the palace. Èyíàrà resurfaced, meets them at the palace and uses the opportunity to tell the king and the townspeople about her evil friends' acts towards her. Fìkàwòkà's remaining child's death is reported to her during the trial. Èyíàrà begs the king not to execute them so that their consciences can punish them well. Èyíàrà later advises the evildoers to leave town (to escape revenge from other people they have offended) and settle down wherever they finish planting the seeds she will give them. The seeds are used up the 3rd day and they settle down in Tèmítọ́pẹ́'s town. Tèmítọ́pẹ́ marries Kéréwùú-ọlá (in addition to his first wife, Ìjíade) and Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà marries Fìkàwòkà. While Fìkàwòkà bears 2 sons for Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà in 3 years, Tèmítọ́pẹ́'s wives remain childless. An oracle says Tèmítọ́pẹ́ will become king before having a child and the mother of his first child is in another land.Tèmítọ́pẹ́ inherits and acquires many wives after becoming king. Yet they all remain childless.
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Fìkàwòkà's and Kéréwùú-ọlá's "abandoned" husbands and those the women have offended start a conspiracy against Èyíàrà, who decides to leave town. To evade her husband's opposition, she pretends to be dead after telling Tòròníwà (in Pépélúwà's hearing) to deposit her corpse somewhere in the bush with all her belongings if she doesn't survive her "illness". Tòròníwà obeys and later goes there to untie her "corpse". Èyíàrà follows her friend's fruit trees to Tèmítọ́pẹ́'s town. An oracle tells Tèmítọ́pẹ́ to donate Kéréwùú-ọlá to Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà and marry Èyíàrà. Èyíàrà gets pregnant in the first month and the king's other wives soon follow suit and celebrate her. She bears the king's first son, Tèmídayọ̀. Kéréwùú-ọlá too has started bearing children for Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà (who now lives in the palace, as the chief of palace guards, with his 2 wives).
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Èyíàrà visits her hometown with her 3 children, her mother-in-law (Láwà) and her entourage (including 2 virgins, who she offers to Pépélúwà as her replacement). Tèmítọ́pẹ́ and Láwà die soon afterwards and Tèmídayọ̀ becomes king. King Tèmídayọ̀ hears about Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà's atrocities and is about to order his execution when Èyíàrà steps in (after her friends' pleadings) and begs him to leave the old man to God. Guilt and shame force Ṣẹ́tẹ̀ẹ́ẹ̀kà to hang himself soon after. His first son, Ọlátósìn,( by Fìkàwòkà) is appointed the new chief of palace guards.
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After Tèmídayọ̀ has heard Èyíàrà's full history with her "friends", he decides to hold a feast to celebrate her visiting parents (Fimíhàn and Títílọlá). Fìkàwòkà and Kéréwùú-ọlá decide to hide on their farm to avoid a revenge Tèmídayọ̀ never had in mind. They lie down to sleep on the way only to be trapped in a circular bush fires set by hunters, who didn't know anyone was there. Only their skulls are recovered after the fire burns itself out. Their skulls are buried at the doorstep of Èyíàrà's room for her to step on all the time. After burying her parents, Èyíàrà lives long enough to see her great-grandchildren before being given a mouth-watering burial by King Tèmídayọ̀.
The story ends with the poem, "Ìwọ ni" (You are the one) which mentions both the good and the wicked characters in the novel.
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