Lily Owens lives with a mean harsh father who owns a peach farm in South Carolina.  Her first memory is of killing her mother accidentally by shooting her with a gun that she was trying to get to her while her parents are arguing as her mother, Deborah is packing up a suitcase.  When Lily does something that her father, T. Ray doesn't like he makes her kneel in a pile of uncooked grits that leave cuts and bruises on her legs.  After her mother died T. Ray brought in a black worker from the fields named Rosaleen to take care of the house and Lily.  Rosaleen is aggressive and not prone to keeping her mouth shut when she should, but she acts as a surrogate mother to Lily.