Colors of Truth follows the stories of Caroline and Pearlie, two teenage girls growing up in Texas in the 1950s. Though both girls are the same age and growing up in the same town, their lives are very different. Caroline is a white girl, living on a farm with her parents and younger brother and sister. Pearlie is a black girl, living with her parents and siblings. She attends a different school than Caroline, though they do ride the same bus to their schools. She and her family also work in the cotton fields in Caroline's family's farm in the summer. With alternating narrative voices, the reader learns about the events of one summer, when Caroline and Pearlie's lives become intertwined.