The summer Allison turns twelve brings many disturbing changes, as she fights to protect her beloved grandfather from the schemes of other family members and seeks the courage to stand up to the taunts of her spiteful cousin Carolina.
In the summer of 1926, eleven-year-old Kath visits her grandfather Grando, the only minister in Peaceable, Indiana, and finds him the target of the local Ku Klux Klan because he employs a colored woman.