Kenda, a naïve teacher from upstate New York, journeys to Mississippi in 1970 on a quest to change the world and escape an abusive fiancé. When she starts working at a newly integrated junior high school, Kenda is greeted with a Confederate flag and a “Yankee Go Home” sign. She quickly learns that, even when equality becomes the law, culture prevails--a culture she knows little about. Her challenges go beyond the classroom. Her teacher’s salary isn’t enough to pay the rent; she moonlights in a hospital lab. Over time, Kenda learns the ways of the segregated South through friendships she creates in unlikely places. Kenda’s persistence sees her through challenges and even a lawsuit, and her new friends offer unexpected wisdom and understanding. She makes a difference in her students’ lives, and they change her. Even though magnolias don’t bloom in September, they do blossom in their own season, just as Kenda and her students do.
