Seventeen year-old Christine changes her name to Lavender and leaves her conservative Ohio home tattooed, secretly pregnant and alone. She sets off for New York City to become a punk rock singer. Floundering in a lonely world of drugs, sex and unstable relationships, Lavender, her daughter Anais and Cole, a biracial gay man, cling to each other for acceptance, creating their own unique family. Through years of unsparing love for her challenging daughter, Lavender suffers over her parents' cold renunciation, but a deep fear of more rejection keeps her from the reunion she longs for. After ten years, surprising events lead Lavender back to her family to discover the secrets that drove her away and the desire path that brings her home.