When Odessa Blackburn is first left in Mississippi to negotiate a new life with her ostracized mother Ella Mae, the strains of family propaganda, puberty, and life away from her siblings make for compounded heartache. Odessa and Ella Mae must negotiate toward patience and a new way of loving without violence.
Soon mother and daughter build a bridge out of their broken lives over which Odessa's oldest brother Lamont crosses. The novel blossoms into the story of these young adult siblings. Though the two are estranged early in childhood by the lies and myths born of family pain, they become emotionally reliant on each other for a sense of family. Following Lamont's death from AIDS related illnesses, Odessa is faced with her own grieving, and with fulfilling Lamont's request for connection with their estranged siblings.
The novel's arc takes the reader over the complicated waters of an African-American family's intergenerational internalized oppressions. Against a contrasted backdrop of pastoral bluesy tones of Mississippi and jazzy asphalt and graffiti rifts of Harlem, the difficult subjects of family incest and homophobia are traversed melodically and lyrically. The reader is offered both the triumphant depiction of an adult survivor who overcomes obstacles set against her at birth and participation in her courageous journey home.