Safe and back home in Chicago, Hannah Jordan is thrilled about the new house her parents have bought which will allow her and her older sister to have their own room separate from their six-year-old brother. But she is not happy that she will be the only Negro student in her sixth grade Sacred Hearts classroom. She had enough of the pursuit of civil rights the summer before. And if this isn't bad enough, she has two bullies to deal with: a seventh grader and a full-grown nun. There's also a missing woman who nobody but Hannah seems interested in finding. If this is childhood, she's afraid to even think about becoming an adult!