These unforgettable stories featuring fourteen strong women are expertly told in Hampton's distinctive voice. Most hail from fictional "Dixon"-black, white, rich, poor. They all struggle to overcome the suffocation of "a woman's place" as second class citizens in the mid Twentieth Century south. From African American maids, a Ghanaian transplant, a misplaced goat keeper, a crazy woman who sees ghosts to those who break barriers into the male-dominated worlds of architecture, medicine, publishing, business ownership, and even the theater world of NYC-these women rub elbows with straight and gay and sometimes achieve Cinderella romance of their own. Whether surviving rape or chasing chicken thieves, these characters will long linger in the reader's mind.These stories are about strong women who were not recognized or appreciated for their strengths. Some were strong because they had to be. Others were born with minds and skills that refused to be oppressed and none of them should be forgotten.