winnie barringer is heartbroken over her close friend iggie's move to tokyo, japan. however, she immediately takes an interest in the black family that has relocated in iggie's old house, the garbers, who have moved to her neighborhood (in an unspecified location) from detroit, and prioritizes befriending the family's three children, glenn, herbie, and tina, over all else. her first meeting with the garber children is awkward and nearly disastrous as she brings up racist subjects inadvertently, but she tries to overcome this by continuing to bond with them, despite several major bumps in the road along the way - most notably her snobby, prejudiced neighbor mrs. landon's callous attempts at running the garbers out of town because of their race.