With no time to daydream of fairy godmothers, white weddings or debutante balls, Sylvia Rose is happy if there is enough food in the cupboard to feed her brother and infant sister.
Holding steadfast to the values she learned growing up in rural Mississippi, Sylvia Rose's fight for survival is fraught with heartache and pain. An absent mother leaves her to raise her younger siblings alone.
In later years, fate rewards Sylvia with a comfortable life among the social elite while living in Cincinnati, Ohio. But she wonders, what is the price necessary to enjoy her new-found wealth and status?
Decades later, as an elderly matron and grandmother, Sylvia Rose finds her answer when an old debt comes knocking. She slowly reaches for the doorknob and asks.
"has the piper come to be paid?"