In 1945 the war is crashing to its end, and in a tiny Texas town Miranda Harrison, age twelve, struggles to make sense of her changing body and the turmoil in her life-a papa driven to destroy himself, a mama hiding her secret past in a cloak of piety, and a live-in grandmother reigning over the household. Stirred into the family mix is a fifteen-year-old, out-of-control cousin holding the adults and Miranda in guilty submission.