McKinney-Whetstone, Diane

Three young girls, Shern, Victoria, and Bliss, must somehow find a way to cope with the worst experience of their lives when their mother's nervous breakdown results in them being placed in a foster home run by Mae, a compulsive gambler, and her mean-spirited daughter, Ramona.

Noon and Herbie experience a change in their relationship when they find two young girls on their doorstep in 1950s Philadelphia. The girls grow to be loving sisters who fall for the same man, a developer who wants to run a road through their African-American neighborhood--a project whose opposition forces are led by Noon.