Summary

At 13 years old, in 1975, the book's unnamed narrator arrives at the home of her birth family where she meets her biological mother and sister for the first time. Her biological mother is curt and does not get up to greet her. She is dropped off by her adoptive father, who is returning her to her birth family and whom she must now think of as her uncle. Her adoptive mother has not come to drop her off, she is too ill to get out of bed. The narrator begs to go home with the only father she has known, but he is resolute on the fact that they cannot keep her anymore and that her real parents will love her. After driving off, he comes back and drops off vanilla ice cream for her, her favorite flavor, but she cannot eat it.

In...