Raina is overjoyed and torn by the thought of leaving her mother to attend college. For all her life, she knows Ms. Calyx to be loveless mother. She never tells her daughter she is proud of her or that she even cares.As expected, Ms. Calyx, learns of the college news and refuses to let Raina go. Mother and daughter clash horribly, inflicting painful assaults of anger and isolation upon each other. Eventually, the ache of familial love and the timid first steps toward adulthood encourage Raina to swallow her fears and tenderly engage her mother. Ms. Calyx readily accepts Raina's olive branch offering. She reveals a long held secret that was torturing her for many years. Gradually, mother and daughter see each other in a new light of forgiveness, love, and deeper understanding.