At age eight, Naomi is not wise to the ways of adults, but she does know about the night her Momma went away and that the sound of the footsteps and the slamming door were not made by her father. Her black father, however, is accused and found guilty of killing his white wife in Eden, North Carolina, and the lives of Naomi and her sister are changed forever. Now parentless, they are raised by their father's sister, Momma Pearl. Naomi longs to escape and exchanges one bad home for another when she marries soon after high school. Is there hope for her to ever have a happy life?
