When seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is pulled from her life in Washington, DC, and made to move into the inhospitable house of her dying grandmother, Mama Letty, she believes her final year has been wrecked. Avery's mother and Mama Letty's friction causes a tense arrival and brings up old conflict that they are reluctant to discuss. Avery is determined to find out the mysteries that divided her family in two but is constantly rejected when she attempts to go deeper. Although tensions rise in her distant family, Avery takes solace in friendships with Simone Cole, her alluring next-door neighbour, and Jade Oliver, a member of the most illustrious family in the community whose mother's murder is still unsolved. As the three girls grow closer?Avery and Simone?s friendship blossoming into romance?the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery?s family in ways she can?t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell?or if some things are better left buried.