1978. The year I turned ten and the year my mama killed herself. She was thirty-five, and dying is the last thing that should have been on her mind."

After the death of her mother, Sylvia Butler's father, a man she knows only from an old photo, takes her from Louisville, Kentucky to Ozark, Alabama to live with his family. But his wife resents everything about this intruder, from her out-of-wedlock conception to her dark skin and nappy hair.

When the wife's younger brother Charles returns from Vietnam, Sylvia thinks she has found a friend and confidante, only to be hurt again, but this time, in a manner she never could have imagined.

Set under the backdrop of the Deep South in the 70s and 80s, this coming of age story of redemption and grace follows Sylvia in her journey from awkward girl to confident young woman, at last standing on her own.