Fear and terror grip Wrightsburg, Georgia, when Beth Campbell, head cheerleader at Chandler High School, goes missing and is later found murdered. Ginny Westbrook, a budding journalist, seeks out Beth's killer even as she searches for her own identity. Ginny, born too white for black and too black for white, is despised by the black community because she is different, and hated by whites for an interracial kiss shared with Dewey Colton, a fellow student, in a school play. While researching an article for the school newspaper, Ginny stumbles upon a string of missing girls. Digging too deeply, she clashes with a serial killer who harbors a hate of interracial relationships and has a passion for nursery rhymes.