Five mostly autobiographical short stories about a little colored girl who grew up in St Louis during the 1940s and 50s, with her observations about her safe, middle class, upbringing in a segregated city that allowed her to develop the intellectual and social skills that served her so well as an adult. These personal insights into the life of a smart, curious, adventuresome little girl who wanted never to be "ordinary" are augmented by the author's social commentary about how colored people were treated during those years and how white control and dominance dictated the behaviors of everyone, blacks and whites alike.