Jordan March lives with her great-aunt Frances Wilkins, who lives a lonesome existence on a rundown farm. Frances' strange and imaginative behavious amuses and concerns Jordan - her aunt lives a childlike life of pretend, dressing in costumes and living in soap operas.
Jordan befriends Alanis King, a black teenager who lives on a farm with her grandfather, the farm's groundskeeper and handyman. Alanis introduces Jordan to a wild teenage life. They use the farm basement as their hangout and hideout, and Alanis teaches the impressionable rich girl the ways of street life.
But during their explorations of the farm together, Alanis and Jordan discover a March family secret hidden in the attic: long ago, someone was hidden in the attic to give birth. The girls discover that Jordan's father is actually Frances' son and that her grandmother had arranged for her husband to father him with her sister, a revelation that leads to a family reunion and new hope for the March family.
