Supposedly God doesn"t give people more burdens than they can bear, but Delrita thinks there may have been a mixup in the heavenly records. She"s lost her parents and her beloved Uncle Punky within the space of three months, and though she has a comfortable home with Uncle Bert and Aunt Queenie, it"s hard for her to get close to her prissy, superorganized aunt. Even the orderliness of her home is threatened when Aunt Queenie"s father moves in. Sergeant Roebuck may be a World War II veteran, but he"s also a cantankerous old man who spits tobacco into the plants, criticizes his daughter, and seems to resent Delrita. Delrita tries to find outside distractions--being a Teen Buddy for retarded Joey and developing her friendship with Avanelle and Tree Shackleford and their big, loving family, but she needs a place to hang her heart. It isn"t until a class project forces her to spend time with Sergeant Roebuck that she learns that people aren"t always what they seem and that, like a turtle on a fence post, she can find help in unexpected places.