Her problems overwhelm fifteen-year-old Rita Fernandez. They only happen because she's brown! Her father won't allow her to date until her grades improve. What's worse is that he refuses to buy her the horse of her dreams until then, too!
In addition, her failing grades jeopardize her status as a Stewart Falls cheerleader. Rita knows she isn't really dumb, even if it took forever for her to learn to read.

Nobody listens to what she wants. A school counselor told her there's no way she can ever be a veterinarian, a dream she's had since childhood. The guy Rita adores still sees her as a troublesome younger sister. He even tells other boys that she's too young to date since she hasn't had her quinceañera, a coming-of-age celebration yet and drives them away.

To top it all off, her mother hates Rita for blemishing her new, perfectly blonde family. Even as friends rally around to help her, she sinks into depression when her mother wants to sabotage her quinceañera, the party Rita should have had a year ago when she turned fifteen. How will she ever manage to show people what she can do when they judge her because she's brown?