Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity. Louise resents her twin sister's beauty and accomplishments in this novel set in the Chesapeake Bay area.

A boy's parents leave him behind when they become fugitives due to their antiwar protest bombings. Eight years later, his mother reappears and he must decide what direction his life must take.

When eleven-year-old Maria must go to the hospital for open-heart surgery, she finds strength in her friendship with a badly scarred burn victim.

Abyssinia Jackson must learn to cope with tragedy when peace is shattered in her Oklahoma countryside and her boyfriend Carl Lee disappears.

Abby, born in an Oklahoma cotton field in the wake of a tornado, learns the secrets of folk medicine from the healer Mother Barker as she grows up.

Aisha cannot decide between her long-time boyfriend, Christopher, and the intelligent but irksome David.