D. Boyd takes an unflinching look back at a 1970s childhood plagued by insecurity, bullying, and family dysfunction. After starting a small town fried chicken franchise her war-vet father becomes even more emotionally inaccessible at home, and nothing Dawn does is ever good enough for her mother. School isn't much better being filled with constant social challenges. Dawn's a true underdog-and this is the story of how she learns to find the good in the bad, and that fitting in isn't all it's cracked up to be.