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Upon graduating from Harvard University in the field of molecular biology, Byron MacKenzie recalls the adventuresome and traumatic events of her childhood in a Louisiana backwater town during the social and political turmoil of the 60's that shaped her future and her quest for integrity and truth. Romantically named after the 19th century English poet, Byron is "different," to her mother's distress. "Can you imagine a young girl who keeps snakes and frogs in her bedroom and collects insects for a hobby? When she's not in school, she spends all her time mucking around in the swamp." Byron's memories include her Grandpa MacLaren, a wonderful, white-haired crusty old gentleman, an émigré from Scotland who married a Cajun woman. During Byron's youth, he had taken her with him to visit the shanty town saloon and experience the people, music, and dancing and come to know his secret Negro friends. At home, Byron continuously undermines her egocentric older sister, Tina, who believes she is destined to become the next Elizabeth Taylor. At great personal risk, Byron assists a childhood friend, Josine Carrie, in escaping from her abusive father, a rapist intent on killing her and her unborn child. Byron's other friends are also unusual and more interesting than her classmates, with one exception, Aristophanes Jones, a Black teenage boy who lives in shanty town with his single mother, who has a mysterious past. Jones has ambitions to go to college, but he must survive the dangers of attending an integrated high school to get there. He says of Byron, "You may be smart, but you be one crazy girl too." Reflecting the cultural influence of a racist society, a local redneck teenage gang harasses and endangers Byron and Aristophanes because of her blatant association with a Black boy. Timothy Maher, Byron's junior high school science teacher, is among the most influential adults in her life. He encourages her independent studies about the bayou swamps and opens a new world of thought regarding the nature of man and his origin. But his teachings are not acceptable to the religious beliefs and bigotry of the community. The school board fires him, resulting in a mock trial and media circus that brings the event into national attention. Unwilling to bow to the pressures of prejudice and ignorance, he refuses to leave town and openly challenges the legality of the school board's action until his family is threatened by the Ku Klux Klan. Although he sends his wife and children away, he pays the ultimate price of a martyr for his beliefs on legal and moral grounds. Timothy Maher's murder nearly destroys Byron. She undergoes a process of emotional healing through her friendship with a Cajun swamp dweller, Toussaint McIvor, a trapper and hunter, and Madame Josephine, a manbo, or voodoo priestess who has far-reaching psychological powers that are applied in clearing an unjustly accused Black convict who has escaped from a chain gang and is hiding in the swamp. Toussaint says of Byron, "You has de face beautiful and de heart good." Through her will to survive, Byron emerges a hero against the man who would kill her in the face of devastating racism and violence. Her story moves to an emotional climax--a testimonial to the indomitability of the human spirit.