It is 1993 in Dar es Salaam when two sheltered seven-year-old Tanzanian girls-one black, one white-meet outside the stall of an injured military horse. But what neither girl knows is that the horse's wounds pale in comparison to the secrets and lies the girls' parents have been entangled in for decades.

Suzanna, the white girl, has a blistery red birthmark on her right cheek. Safina, whose skin is the color of chocolate, does not know who her father is or that he killed Suzanna's father and grandfather. As the children turn to each other for friendship and comfort amid racism and...

It is 1993 in Dar es Salaam when two sheltered seven-year-old Tanzanian girls-one black, one white-meet outside the stall of an injured military horse. But what neither girl knows is that the horse's wounds pale in comparison to the secrets and lies the girls' parents have been entangled in for decades.

Suzanna, the white girl, has a blistery red birthmark on her right cheek. Safina, whose skin is the color of chocolate, does not know who her father is or that he killed Suzanna's father and grandfather. As the children turn to each other for friendship and comfort amid racism and...