Octavia is dreading her summer vacation. Her parents are forcing her and her older sister Tali to take a road trip with their eccentric grandmother, Marey Lee Boylen, whom they call Mare. Octavia, Tali, and Mare start the trip already on each others' last nerve, but then Mare begins telling her granddaughters stories about how she ran away from home at seventeen, at the height of World War II, and joined the Women's Army Corps. Told in alternating viewpoints, with Octavia narrating in the present day and Mare telling the story of her time in the WAC, this engaging, well-told story explores the relationships between sisters and girlfriends, all the while teaching important, oft forgotten history about the roles played by women and African Americans in WWII.