During the two days of the novel's present-time narrative, Margaret receives an unexpected phone call at the Juvenile Court where she works in Waycross, Georgia, and is faced with a tormenting decision, one that forces her to confront all the old griefs of her conflicted life. Margaret examines - with perplexity and wonder - the vast and rich array of her memories: of her young girlhood, growing up in the white slums of Jacksonville with three retarded siblings, a slow-witted mother, and a beloved father who ultimately betrays her; of her removal from the squalor of Eighth Street by her wealthy maternal grandmother, who brings her at age twelve to the orderly and beautiful dairy farm she runs in Waycross.
- ISBN10 0870743783
- ISBN13 9780870743788
- Publish Date 1 October 1994
- Publish Status Temporarily Withdrawn
- Out of Print 10 September 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Southern Methodist University Press,U.S.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 399
- Language English