Lauren Sullivan, an eight year-old African-American, struggles to find her own identity in the 1950s and '60s in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. She refuses to allow the intense forces of racism and sexism of this period to limit or define her. Lauren is forced to learn to confront those negative forces and communicate her views and positions strongly and clearly even though voices such as hers are not welcomed or even acknowledged by those in authority in and outside of her school and community. Lauren's story forces the reader to question how far the United States has actually advanced in its struggle for civil rights, both as to race and gender.