A Place for Ida draws the reader into the life of a young black girl coming of age in the rural south of the 1960s. Abandoned by her parents, left to be raised by her grandmother, Ida grew up longing for touch and affection. "Everyone was already telling her she was a heartbreaker. . . with the strong shapely muscular legs of a stallion." When she meets her first true love, Billy, the overwhelming passion she feels threaten to sweep her away. Ida must learn to master her turbulent emotions while living in a racist society that is itself in social upheaval.