Colors of Truth follows the stories of Caroline and Pearlie, two teenage girls growing up in Texas in the 1950s. Though, both girls are the same age and growing up in the same town, their lives are very different. Caroline is a white girl, living on a farm with her parents and younger brother and sister. Pearlie is a black girl, living with her parents and siblings. She attends a different school than Caroline, though they do ride the same bus to their schools. She and her family also work in the cotton fields in Caroline's family's farm in the summer. With alternating narrative voices, the reader learns about the events of one summer, when Caroline and Pearlie's lives become, intertwined. In addition to the daily prejudice Pearlie faces, she is also the victim of rape that summer. We learn at the end of the book that the same man raped Caroline's younger sister that summer as well. Caroline spends the summer working the fields, dating a new boy, and also, becoming closer to the Jewish man who owns a store in town, who teaches her about the Holocaust and the terrible treatment of the Jewish people in Germany during WWII. We also learn at the end of the book that Caroline accidentally stumbles upon the man attempting again rape Pearlie, and when she tries to stop him, she winds up killing him. The story has been, told mainly by the grown up Caroline, who has moved back to her family's home, and is waiting for the arrival of her family to celebrate her birthday. This is now sixty years after than fateful summer
