It's hard to be a "Black Sheep Baxter," at least for 12-year-old Polly. From a poor white family, Polly's best friend, Timbre Ann Biggs, is black, making them the only "salt-and-pepper" friends in town. Her mom keeps secrets, her dad turns to the "devil's drink," and her rich, mean Meemaw makes Sunday dinners a chore. But in that fall of 1959, life in quiet Holcolm County starts to heat up. One by one, thriving colored businesses burn to the ground. When a tragic fire brings everything to a head, the spotlight falls on Polly's family and Polly fears her friendship with Timbre Ann will never be the same. Sensitively painting a vivid portrait of the Jim Crow South, Polly's story captures the defiant spirit of youth in an oppressive small town as the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement begin to sprout.