Two women--one black, one white--develop a bond while in a university classroom. As academics, their impulse is to write a book about how, despite different life experiences growing up in the deeply segregated South of the 1950s and 60s, they have wound up in similar circumstances. Naive does not even begin to describe these two women as each reviews her own past and they meld their stories. They are rendered nearly speechless as they identify one powerful parallel after another. Race frames the project, but family, love, hard work, and integrity create the picture inside that frame. This book will touch anyone who values personal history, family ties, the pain and joys of life, and the deeply moving gift of reflection.