A yearning for their missing mothers pulls Vernice and Annie apart. It will take a devastating tragedy to bring them back together. Vernice and Annie are 'cradle friends', born days apart in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, both destined never to know their mothers.

The girls are inseparable, bound by a friendship far deeper than sisterhood. But this is the American south in the 1950s. Black girls like Vernice and Annie have to fight for every opportunity they can, and neither one can build the future they hope for in Honeysuckle. Gradually, inevitably, the girls drift apart.