Alicia treats herself to a new Louis Vuitton bag; but when Paul finds out, he demands that she return it and Alicia ends up sneaking around with the bag behind his back. Meanwhile, Bow bribes Alicia to buy her a Jansport backpack so she can impress her friends at school.
Rainbow Johnson recounts her experience growing up in a mixed-race family in the '80s and the constant dilemmas they had to face over whether to assimilate or stay true to themselves. Bow's parents Paul and Alicia decide to move from a hippie commune to the suburbs to better provide for their family. As her parents struggle with the challenges of their new life, Bow and her siblings navigate a mainstream school in which they're perceived as neither black nor white. This family's experiences illuminate the challenges of finding one's own identity when the rest of the world can't decide where you belong.