Why does Gingerbread always have a smile on his face? Because life is funny, he tells Keisha. But for her and almost everyone else in her Brooklyn neighborhood there doesn t seem to be much to laugh about. China, Ebony, and Grace are best friends, but Grace s mother isn t crazy about her being friends with two girls who aren t white, and each cut Ebony makes on her wrist seems to drive them even further apart. Just across the schoolyard there s Eric who has to raise his younger brother Mickey, even though no one expects him to amount to anything. Meanwhile, Sonia s Muslim parents expect everything of her, and it may be more than she is able to give after she suffers a shattering loss.When Drew brings his father s Jaguar into Sam s family s auto body shop across town they seem to be from opposite sides of the tracks, but Drew s the one hiding a dark family secret. And he s not the only one.