Rachel Morse

Rachel Morse is the central character in this novel and the first-person narrator of many of the chapters. She is the daughter of Nella and Roger Morse. Because her mother is Danish and her father black, Rachel is light-skinned with blue eyes.

When Rachel was eleven years old, her mother took Rachel, along with her brother and sister to the roof of the apartment building in which they lived. Nella threw herself and her children from the roof. Rachel was the only survivor.

The novel follows Rachel as she turns from a preteen into a young adult. She struggles with unanswered questions about her family and her childhood. She is also plagued with the American way of classifying people by the color of their skin. Making classification worse is the fact that Rachel does not fit perfectly into either category.

Rachel also sees a bigger picture of...