Eli Burnes grows up under the care of Mattie, an opera singer, and Miz Johnnie, the family maid, in Augusta, Georgia. Eli's alcoholic mother has been gone since Eli was three, and Eli's father, Willie, is a disc jockey and anti-war activist who lives in Webster Groves, Missouri, with a new wife and two young sons. After Mattie dies of cancer and Miz Johnnie decides to retire, Eli runs away with a draft dodger, but when things go wrong with their plans, she must go live with her father and his family. Secrets of the past and present begin to unravel the happy life she creates. Witnessing and sometimes participating in the protests, drug use, and musical fervor of the times, Eli learns about love, forgiveness and survival.