Two mothers, on their deathbeds, one in Mississippi and one in the Bronx, New York, send their children to friends, asking their help to lift their children from the depths of grinding poverty. Three young children are introduced to a new world, where they succeed beyond their mothers' dreams. Joshua and Ruthie Baxter escape from an isolated cabin in the Mississippi woods to enter a world centered in the Ole Miss community, as they fight to free themselves from the label of "poor white trash." James Bright is taken from his mother's cold water flat in the South Bronx to the dorms of Saint Mary's in Berkeley, California, where he finds himself as the only black boy in an all-white grammar and high school. It is not an easy road for any of them, as they struggle with problems no one could have anticipated. Their paths cross in the turbulent streets of San Francisco during the height of the Summer of Love. This is a story of love and hope, of shock, fear and fulfillment.