The Color of Water tells the story of James McBride, who grows up in New York in the 1960s - during the time of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King - alongside eleven siblings. Above all, it narrates the moving story of his white mother, Ruth, who was born in Poland in 1921 as the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, emigrated to America with her family at the age of two, and left her parents' home in Virginia forever at 17 to marry a Black man in New York. A family story like a novel, featuring a heroine who triumphs over racial conflicts and personal sacrifices with apparent ease.