Growing up in a small Mississippi River town, Fannie works at the local cafe, trying to hold her own in a world of slow expectations and hard boundaries. While dreaming that her cooking will be her ticket out of Persia, she cleaves to Mattie, the irrepressible black woman who runs the kitchen; to Will, the troubled, quiet boy she falls in love with; and eventually to Sheila Jones, a reclusive young girl who has returned with her mother from Califor