Mrs. Johnson waits alone in the yard for her daughter Dee to arrive for dinner.

Mrs. Johnson describes a recurring fantasy of reuniting with Dee on a TV talk show.

Maggie appears nervously at the door in a pink skirt and red blouse, barely visible behind the frame.

The old family house burns down, and Maggie sustains severe burns on her arms and legs.

Dee arrives with her boyfriend, stepping out of a car in a long, bright African-style dress.

Dee photographs her mother and a cowering Maggie in front of the house before greeting them.

Dee announces she has changed her name to 'Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo.'

Mrs. Johnson traces the name 'Dee' back through three generations of the family.

The four sit down to a dinner of collard greens and pork, which Hakim-a-barber refuses to eat.

Dee examines the butter churn and asks to take the churn top home as a decorative piece.

Dee rifles through the trunk at the foot of Mrs. Johnson's bed and pulls out two old quilts.

Dee asks to take the quilts, saying she plans to hang them as wall decorations in her home.

Mrs. Johnson refuses, telling Dee she had already promised the quilts to Maggie for when she marries.

Maggie quietly tells her mother that Dee can have the quilts.

Mrs. Johnson snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, then watches Dee drive away angry.

The story opens with Mrs. Johnson waiting in the yard for her semi-estranged daughter Dee, while her younger daughter Maggie — who carries burn scars from a childhood house fire — nervously joins her. When Dee arrives with her boyfriend, she has dramatically reinvented herself, announcing a name change and claiming an African cultural identity her mother struggles to recognize. After a tense dinner, Dee begins claiming family heirlooms, first the butter churn and then two handmade quilts she discovers in her mother's trunk. Mrs. Johnson refuses to surrender the quilts, which she had already promised to Maggie for when she marries. When Maggie passively concedes and tells her mother Dee can have them, Mrs. Johnson is finally moved to act — snatching the quilts back and placing them firmly in Maggie's hands. Dee leaves in a fury, and the story closes with Mrs. Johnson and Maggie sitting peacefully together in the yard.

The core conflict over Dee's homecoming and the quilts.

Mrs. Johnson describes herself as a large, hard-working woman capable of doing any farm task a man can do.

Young Dee is recalled fiercely wanting nice things — a yellow organdy graduation dress and matching black pumps.

Dee's childhood friends are described as nervous and furtive, impressed by her sharp humor and commanding reading voice.

Mrs. Johnson explains her own school was closed down after she completed second grade.

The church and community raised money so that Dee could attend college.

Maggie shuffles toward her mother in the yard, moving with the wariness of a frightened, wounded animal.

Hakim-a-barber attempts to give his full Islamic name, which Mrs. Johnson cannot pronounce, so he asks to be called 'Hakim-a-barber.'

Mrs. Johnson realizes, to her own surprise, that she genuinely likes Dee's new loose and flowing dress.

Dee and Hakim-a-barber exchange knowing eye signals over Mrs. Johnson's head during the name discussion.

Mrs. Johnson asks Hakim-a-barber whether he belongs to the cattle farmers who live down the road.

Dee talks constantly and enthusiastically over the sweet potatoes, praising every dish her mother has prepared.

Dee admires the handmade benches at the dinner table and asks who in the family made them.

Dee traces her fingers lovingly over the worn indentations left in the butter churn's dasher by years of use.

Mrs. Johnson recalls that her Uncle Buddy and Big Dee and Stash whittled the dasher from a tree in their yard.

Dee tells Maggie she ought to try to make something of herself as she prepares to leave.

Before Dee's arrival, Mrs. Johnson reflects on her own limited schooling and hard physical life, while recalling the community sacrifices that made Dee's education possible. When Dee arrives with her boyfriend Hakim-a-barber, there is an awkward scene as his Islamic name proves unpronounceable, though Mrs. Johnson quietly admits she likes Dee's new dress. At dinner, Dee is talkative and enthusiastic about everything her mother serves, while Mrs. Johnson probes Hakim-a-barber about his beliefs and finds his answers evasive. Dee then moves through the house admiring its handmade objects — the benches, the churn, the worn dasher — each of which Mrs. Johnson traces back to specific relatives who built and used them. The visit ends with Dee offering her parting advice to Maggie, revealing how thoroughly she misunderstands the life her family leads and the dignity it contains.

The family's backstory, Dee's arrival, and life in the Johnson home.

Mrs. Johnson describes the swept yard as a pleasant, extended living room where she and Maggie are happy.

Young Dee is described as 'determined to stare down any disaster,' refusing to look away even from white men.

Dee is recalled standing outside watching the old house burn, apparently unmoved and without obvious grief.

Dee used to read to her mother and Maggie without pity, forcing words and ideas on them as they sat trapped.

Hakim-a-barber greets Mrs. Johnson and Maggie with the Muslim salutation 'Asalamalakim' on arriving.

Dee declares she could not bear being named after 'the people who oppress' her, explaining her name change.

Mrs. Johnson points out that the name 'Wangero' is itself only two generations removed from a name used in the family.

Hakim-a-barber says that farming and raising cattle is 'not his style,' despite claiming to follow the local farmers' doctrines.

Mrs. Johnson allows Dee to take both the churn top and the dasher home with her.

Mrs. Johnson describes the quilt scraps as pieces of specific ancestors' garments, including a Civil War uniform fragment.

Dee argues the quilts are 'priceless' and that Maggie would destroy them within five years by using them on a bed.

Mrs. Johnson recalls that Dee once called the same quilts 'old-fashioned' and refused to take them when offered.

Mrs. Johnson notices Maggie's hangdog, defeated expression and feels she cannot allow her daughter to accept this loss.

Mrs. Johnson feels something like a spirit move through her and snatches the quilts back from Dee's arms.

Maggie gives a real, unhurried smile as she and Mrs. Johnson sit together quietly in the yard after Dee has gone.

The story's deeper turning points expose the gap between how each character understands heritage and identity. Mrs. Johnson and Maggie are quietly content in their simple yard, while Dee — recalled as fiercely ambitious and dismissive of her roots even as a child — has returned transformed in name and appearance but unchanged in her condescension. Dee's visit is full of contradictions: her chosen African name turns out to be close to a family name, and her boyfriend refuses the agricultural labor his adopted doctrines romanticize. The conflict over the quilts crystallizes these contradictions when Mrs. Johnson remembers that Dee once rejected the same quilts as old-fashioned, and then watches helplessly as Maggie accepts yet another loss with silent resignation. Moved by something she cannot fully name, Mrs. Johnson reclaims both the quilts and her own authority in a single decisive act, and the story closes on Maggie's rare, genuine smile — a sign that something has genuinely shifted for both women.