Sakina is one woman's quest for an identity in a world in which she feels like a stranger. A world in which, as Toni Morrison put it, American meant white and everyone else had to hyphenate. Sakina is exposed to injustices at a very young age From witnessing the false imprisonment of her father to the slap on the wrist received by a man convicted of molesting twelve boys and girls at the shelter she was forced to reside in after losing her mother and father, by the time she reaches college she fully understands racial discrimination and the effects of it and finds herself in the middle of a racial riot on her college campus. In the end, Sakina's tale is one of self-awakening as she struggles to turn her tumultuous black and white world into one of color, full of love and understanding.