What is the main conflict in Caucasia by Danzy Senna?

The book describes the personal story of Birdie Lee, a young girl growing up in Boston in the mid-70s to early 80s. Birdie’s father is black and her mother is white; her father is an intellectual who has risen from tough circumstances and is obsessed with his theories about the origins and effects of racism; her mother is a blueblood-turned-revolutionary who is more concerned with direct action against racism than in theory; Birdie’s sister Cole has dark skin and Birdie has light skin. This play of opposites is the source of much of the novel’s conflict: Birdie’s parents can’t accept one another as authentic, and this causes the family to break apart. Birdie and Cole are thus forced to choose a racial identity on the basis of their looks alone. The novel’s main plot follows Birdie’s struggles—to assume a false identity her mother has devised for her, to live in isolation from her father and sister, not knowing where they are or whether she will see them again, and finally, to take matters into her own hands by finding her lost family and returning to herself.