Summary:

Set in the outskirts of Georgia, the protagonist, a teenage girl, explores and documents coming of age following the death of her mother. Battling both the absence of her mother, and the torment and trickery from her abusive and drunkard father, the protagonist tends to her curiosity and navigates the unknown that is the cause of her mother's death. Unbeknown to her, an adoption of her mothers misfortune and fate will slowly but surely translate into the "lacing of her red ribbon," the assumption of those same chapped hands, cherry cheeks, and contused thighs, and the sewing-shut of her lips..needle, thread, butt and all.