A girl abandoned by her mother discovers the feeling of family.

Pearl’s mother, Ruby, just up and left her with Aunt Ivy, who’s a complete stranger to Pearl. “Your mama’s done gone off the deep end,” Ivy says, and Pearl wonders if she’ll ever come back—Ruby has always been wild and irresponsible. So Pearl is stuck with Aunt Ivy, and Moonpie, the neighbor boy whose mother doesn’t want him, either, and John Dee, Aunt Ivy’s beau. But these three people seem to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, in a way that Pearl can’t comprehend, and she feels left out. As she starts to understand what connects them, and how much she wants to be a part of it, Ruby appears.

With a vividly depicted setting, emotional truth, and a distinctly this story shows how Pearl develops a whole new notion of what she wants, and what she deserves.