Margaret Norman lives in a family with secrets, not the least of which is her own. But what concerns Margaret more is that her family will not talk about her mother, Weezie, an artist who died shortly after Margaret was born. Her father, Jim Norman, a brooding attorney, is too obsessed with his own pain to share. Louisa, her older sister, is hostile toward Margaret and ignores her. Black housekeeper, Ida, who is helping to raise Margaret, does not think it her place to tell what others will not. And gentle great-aunt, Maggie, did not know Margaret’s mother.

When close friend Lily May, Ida’s daughter, suggests …there may be stuff “bout your momma folks oughtn’t to know, Margaret rejects the notion, and determines to find out all she can. Early impressions of her mother as an ethereal beauty are strengthened when she discovers the romantic inscription on Weezie’s tombstone. Those impressions change, however, when Margaret’s art teacher-and Weezie’s best friend-gives her a painting of Weezie portrayed as a gypsy. Finally, Ida shares what she knows, and Margaret must face painful truths concerning her mother.

Set in the South during the 1930s and 1940s, Cardinal Hill takes place in a world where blacks and whites, although separated by custom and law, often thrive in personal relationships; where half a world away, a war disrupts lives of those close to home; and where little girls suspect that kissing causes babies