Set in the early sixties against the backdrop of impending national integration, the novel follows Lee James, a dark-skinned, Catholic, Lebanese girl who comes to a small south Georgia town.

Lee has already seen the partiality shown her younger, fairer sister Ray, and experienced prejudice even in the Catholic church that she dutifully attends with her two daughters, who both have their father's blonde hair and blue eyes.

She must confront the prejudices of her husband's family and the community toward her nationality and religion, at a time when there were no birth control pills, no internet, no cell phones, and when a woman's place was in the home. Lee struggles with her own growth as a wife, mother, and an individual in an unfavourable place and time.