Despite being a straight-A student and voracious reader, eight-year-old Sandrine is treated as little more than a servant by her mother, who forces her to clean, do chores and take care of her sister. On top of this, she must confront growing up in 1970s New Orleans, where men follow her home from school and she is ostracised because she is a light-skinned black girl. Her only refuge is with her beloved grandmother, but after her death, Sandrine realises that she must escape from her mother - and New Orleans - if she is to have any kind of future.