The story opens with a description of "St. Bonny's" or St. Bonaventure, the shelter where Twyla, the narrator, meets Roberta, the story's other main character, when they are both eight years old. Twyla recalls that her mother once told her that people of Roberta's race smell funny, and she objects to being placed in a room with Roberta on the grounds that her mother wouldn't approve. Twyla, however, soon finds Roberta understanding and sympathetic to her situation. While most children at the shelter are orphans, Twyla is there because her mother "dances all night" and Roberta is there because her mother is sick. Roberta and Twyla are isolated from the other children at St. Bonny's and are scared of the older girls, so they stick together.

Twyla remembers St. Bonny's orchard in particular but she doesn't know why it stands out in her memory. She recounts...