Sometimes, when you're sixteen, your concerns don't go beyond the parameters of your immediate world.

It's 1931 in Jefferson, Iowa, and what's important to Jim Snow are the flavors served in the local ice-cream parlor, the location of the apostrophe key on his typewriter, and the girl he loves. But the ties of family bind him in a way that's beyond his control, shaping not only his life but the lives of future Snows.

Jim, Cathy, Jill, and Mona Snow all come of age in different eras (1931, 1942, 1969, 2006), but for each of them, sixteen is a departure point--a time when they become aware of the complications that will alter the course of their lives.