Temple Beaupre is a charming high-spirited young woman who comes from a background of privilege in the mid-20th century deep South, a society poised on the cusp of change. Having been raised with one foot in the small town provincialism of Zenobia, Mississippi and the other in the forgiving sophistication of New Orleans, Temple believes herself to be a true child of the South, but one who nurtures renegade values. Split at the Root chronicles her evolving conscience from the innocent postwar years through the turmoil of civil rights as she journeys into the past to examine the ways in which secrets transform our lives.