- Our narrator waits for someone (we don't know exactly who) in her yard. We're told that the narrator and someone named Maggie spruced up the yard for this mystery person's visit.
- We learn a bit about Maggie, including the intriguing detail that she has "burn scars down her arms and legs." Hmm, there's gotta be a story there.
- We stay in the narrator's head for a while and learn that Maggie is the narrator's daughter and that the mystery person is her other daughter, Dee. The narrator fantasizes about reuniting with Dee on some TV talk show like Oprah. The topic? Children who have "made it." (We're guessing from this that Dee has "made it.")
- In the fantasy, the narrator imagines herself looking all hot and being super witty (the exact opposite of how she thinks she really is).
- Then we jump out of the narrator's head and back into the yard, where the narrator is now joined by Maggie. Even though she's all decked out waiting for her sister's big arrival, it's pretty obvious that Maggie is one seriously awkward and withdrawn kid. The narrator explains that she's been like this, "ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground."
- We're back in our narrator's head where we learn some more details about this fire she's been dropping hints about. We also find out some stuff about Dee: what she looks like, how she reacted to the fire, and how the narrator raised the money for her to go to some fancy school.
- The narrator talks about herself a little, too. We learn that (1) she hasn't had much formal education, (2) she would be voted off American Idol because she can't carry a tune in a bucket, and (3) she had once a crazy encounter with a cow. Important note: she also refers to herself as colored.
- And then what we've all been waiting for: Dee's arrival.
- The narrator and Maggie watch as Dee and a "short, stocky" dude climb out of the car. They're a little taken aback by Dee's wild get-up and new hairstyle.
- Instead of a boring old Hi, Mom, Dee greets the narrator with "Wa-su-zo-Tean-o," an African salutation. The stocky dude is equally fancy with his the Arabic greeting, "Asalamalakim," meaning peace be upon you.
- The stocky dude tries to hug Maggie, but she's not feeling it and backs away.
- Before they even get a chance to catch up or anything, Dee races back to the car to grab her camera. She doesn't have a camera phone (duh—we're only in the twentieth century) so she uses a Polaroid (if you're unfamiliar with this ancient device, it's like the original Instagram).
- Dee begins an impromptu photo shoot of her mother and sister in front of the house.
- The stocky dude (whom the narrator now refers to as Asalamalakim) tries to shake Maggie's hand, but she's pretty creeped out and shies away.
- Then—surprise—Dee informs her mother that she's changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. She explains that the name Dee isn't cool because it's the name of her oppressors. Dee and her mother talk a bit about this and the narrator ultimately rolls with Dee's name change.
- The narrator finds out Asalamalakim's real name, but she has trouble getting it right so he suggests she just call him Hakim-a-barber.
- The narrator chats with Hakim and we learn that he's Arab; the narrator wonders whether he and Dee are married, but doesn't ask.
- The narrator has whipped up a feast so they all start to chow down.
- While they're eating, Dee gets really excited about the benches they're sitting on. She especially likes the butt indentations in them. Heehee.
- She's also fascinated by the butter churn (this thing that changes cream into butter) in the yard. Dee asks her mom if she could have the top of the churn and the dasher (the mixer thingy inside the churn). These parts of the churn, we find out, were whittled out of the narrator's sister's tree. Dee just has to have them to decorate her own place, and the narrator seems cool with it so Dee starts packing them up.
- After dinner Dee continues her raid on her mother's stuff. She roots through a trunk in her bedroom and finds two quilts made by her Grandmother and Aunt. And guess what? She just has to have those, too.
- The narrator suggests that she take different quilts, ones that were made by machines because they'll last longer. Yuck, no. The handmade quilts are way cooler and Dee wants them.
- The narrator tells Dee that she'd actually been planning to give the quilts to Maggie someday as a wedding gift.
- Dee freaks out.
- Dee tells her mother that Maggie couldn't possibly appreciate the quilts and would (gasp) "probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." Dee, on the other hand, would hang them on the wall like fine art.
- The narrator and Dee argue about the quilts until Maggie appears out of nowhere and pipes up. It's okay, she doesn't need the quilts, she tells her mother.
- But the narrator grabs the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie anyway.
- Dee storms out.
- The narrator and Maggie go outside. Dee makes a snotty remark and then jumps into the car and takes off with Hakim-a-barber.
- The narrator and Maggie watch them drive away; the narrator asks Maggie to bring her some tobacco.
- The two hang out in the yard "until it was time to go in the house and go to bed."