Nine-year-old Lydia Marshall awakens one morning injured, still in her dress from the day before, and in an unfamiliar room of the old family home. She discovers that her mother is gone and that her father blames her for it, but she cannot remember what happened! Eleven-year-old Darius, Lydia's brother, tries to intervene between Lydia and Earl, their enraged and bitter father, but years later, even he abandons his sister, and she is left to deal with her father's revenge on her own. When Earl deliberately cuts off her long hair, Lydia vows to be beautiful again one day, but will she? Does even God hate her now?