Fleeing her strict grandmother's home in 1963 Mississippi, nine-year-old Starla Claudelle becomes an unlikely companion to an African-American woman at whose side she learns harsh lessons about segregation and family.

Gloriana June Hemphill's birthday happens to be on the Fourth of July, so every year it is filled with celebration of fireworks and iced tea in Hanging Moss, Mississippi. In the summer of 1964 she is turning twelve, but she wishes she could go back a year all the same and not have to deal with a new girl in town--who wears black socks--or her questions about why the town wants to close down the segregated public pool. As she turns twelve, Glory determines...