When Ibby Bell's father dies the summer of 1964, her mother deposits eleven-year-old Ibby in New Orleans with her eccentric grandmother, Fannie. Her grandmother's rundown Victorian mansion is like no place Ibby's ever been, and Fannie like no one she's ever met. Luckily, Ibby falls under the care of Fannie's black cook, Queenie, and her outspoken daughter, Dollbaby, who initiate her into the ways of the South, both its grand traditions and its darkest secrets. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, this is a coming-of-age story about family and truth.
