A coming of age story about a young Creole of color who, by age seventeen, is left without a family either by abandonment or death. She’s taken in by an elderly White woman whom she’s befriended and confided in over a period of years when she makes drugstore deliveries to the woman’s home. Sera Menard helps to give Claire the most important thing she wants in life: a college education. When Sera dies, she leaves Claire an envelope containing several family heirlooms and a note. Claire discovers why Sera had been mysterious and kept her past hidden.