With all the rhythm, poetry, and pain of a Black girl's childhood in South Central LA, Jalondra Davis tells the story of Tanis Sutton, a 10 year old girl who dreams of having happy parents, straight hair, and an ice-cream colored house on the west side of town. Mischievous and attention-seeking, Tanis struggles with playground romance and schoolyard cliques in the midst of her family's bitter betrayals, which threaten to unravel them as a city explodes.