Stella lives in the segregated south - in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can't. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn't bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something that they're never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, change not welcome by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella's community - her world - is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire, and learns that ashes don't necessarily signify an end...