'The world of eight-year-old Cherry Laurel is an intensely sensual one - of cold noses, burning autumn leaves, changes of heart, childhood, nationhood . . . and betrayal. Her mother Bell and her father Jackson are failing to cope with the catastrophe of domestic life.
'And now Cherry has been volunteered for a "historical experiment". Milwaukee's notoriously racially segregated public school system is to pursue an active policy of Integration. Cherry and her younger sister are bussed in, unaware that the shame of white America awaits them.
'Meanwhile, during the autumn of that upsidedown year, her parents' marriage falls to pieces. Jackson leaves his wife and kids to endure winter's blizzards, while Cherry's only school friend, the wistful Hugo, haunted by family tragedy, is determined to find his own lost father. His momma Macy just wants to hold it all together . . .' (Synopsis)
