Miss Hickory is a doll made of an apple-wood twig and a hictory nut. Life is uneventful until her owner, Ann, goes off to school in New Hampshire, leaving Miss Hickory behind. Then Miss Hickory must learn to fend for herself, with help from unexpected places.
Seventeen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris thinks that basketball is his ticket out of Harlem, but first he must come to terms with many difficult realities of his life.