Rainbow Johnson recounts her experience growing up in a mixed-race family in the '80s and the constant dilemmas she and the family members had to face over whether to assimilate or stay true to themselves. Bow's parents, Paul and Alicia, decide to move from a hippie commune to the suburbs to better provide for their family. As her parents struggle with the challenges of their new life, Bow and her siblings navigate a mainstream school in which they're perceived as neither black nor white. The family's experiences illuminate the challenges of finding one's own identity when the rest of the world can't decide where you belong.