Sister Anne's hands are brown, and Anna's hands are white. It's the early 1960s, and Anna has never seen a person with dark skin before. At first, she is afraid of her new second-grade teacher. But Anna quickly finds that there's no reason to be scared. Sister Anne is wonderful. She likes jokes and she makes math and reading fun. But then someone sails a paper airplane to her, with a cruel message written on its wings. Sister Anne's wise way of turning a painful incident into a powerful learning experience has a profound impact on Anna and her classmates.