It is the coming-of-age story of two multiracial girls, Birdie Lee and her sister Cole, who have a Caucasian mother and an African-American father.

Senna upends the traditional "tragic mulatto" story line by exploring Birdie's desire to be accepted as African-American, although she appears to be Caucasian.

Growing up on the run, and fearful her true identity could endanger her mother's life, Birdie seeks to understand who she is and how she fits into the world.

Boston busing desegregation flamed racial tensions, resulting in riots, beatings and violence which persisted for many years.

[4][5] Within the context of the novel, Birdie's inclination to try to make herself invisible due to the racial tension she felt in her home positioned her as a "neutered mutation" within Trey Ellis' concept of the "cultural mulatto".

During this period the strategy for social change through peaceful protests that are associated with the Civil Rights Movement were being challenged by new African-American leaders.

[6][7][8] Violence was used as a form of protest by groups such as Weather Underground,[9] notorious for mail bombs and bank robberies, and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), the organization that kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst in 1974.

An assault on an African-American man by Irish men in the South school district makes the news and the first day of classes are cancelled.

"[11] With Cole's sisterly protection, in addition to changing her hair, dress and speech patterns to fit in with the other African-American students, Birdie successfully passes as an African American.

Near the end of the school year, Birdie's parents finally divorce and Deck announces that he is moving to Brazil with his new girlfriend, Carmen, and taking Cole with him.

Birdie begins to realize she wants to be identified as African-American when Nicholas calls her "Poca"[12] — a reference to her skin tone in the light.

When summer ends, Nicholas heads back to Exeter and Birdie attends the local public school with the other "townies".

By the end of this section, she decides to run away from home to Boston and look for her Aunt Dot, and hopefully find her father and her sister.

[3] Living in a white New Hampshire town, Birdie's primary connection to her blackness and her past is the box of Negrobilia gifted to her by Deck before he and Cole left for Brazil.

For instance, when free-spirited Aunt Dot disappears to India and reappears some years later slightly changed, and the mother of a four-year girl named Taj.

At Nkrumah, Cole is made fun of for her dry knees in gym class, appearing "ashy" to the other African-American students.

[3] Eventually, Deck pays for Cole to go to a black hair salon, making her "splendid, ladylike, [and] suddenly in a whole new league.

[25] When she and Cole begin attending Nkrumah, they learn African-American Vernacular English from Ebony magazine to appease their predominantly black classmates.

[3] Likewise, Birdie recounts Redbone as speaking in a "strained dialect", recognizing his failed attempt at black slang during Aunt Dot's going-away party.

[3] In general, for her debut novel, Caucasia, Danzy Senna received positive reviews that praised her writing, themes and innovation.

Critics noted the Bildungsroman, Post-soul angle Senna takes to reinvent the tragic mulatto genre,[33][34][35][36] in which instead of a "doomed interracial love affair at its center ... here the lovers are sisters.

"[34] The New York Times Book Review applauded how "Senna gives new meaning to the twin universal desires for a lost childhood and a new adult self," in an environment in which she passes as white and can "look and act like anyone".

"[34] Reviews attribute Senna's ability to write this coming-of-age novel about a mixed-race girl so well because she herself lived a life that parallels that of the protagonist's, Birdie.

Kirkus Review noted Senna is a "young Boston-raised writer ... herself the product of a mixed marriage, which gives her first fiction an authenticity..."[38] Lori Tharps muses, "The voice of Birdie Lee is so real and compelling, you can't help but wonder if the story is semi-autobiographical..."[39] Claudia Arias goes on to say that Birdie's life is not just a reflection of Senna's life, but a "testimony of the lived experiences of being multiracial and a critique of the rigidity of racial categories in the United States," as a whole.

[40] The subtle, "complex and humane"[41] style of narration with which she discusses hefty topics, such as "the racial divide in America"[41] is highly acclaimed.

The Women's Review of Books wrote that Senna "has perfect pitch for all sorts of dialogue, the technical sleight of hand to place the reader deftly in the landscapes and mindscapes of her characters, laugh-out-loud wit and a radical political consciousness so integral to her storytelling that it is never didactic.

"[42] The Australian remarked on her "fine insights, humor and control",[43] and The Guardian mentioned the breadth of her novel, which discusses on top of racial identity, "liminal states" of "womanhood...sexuality and class".

A 2001 review in The Observer noted: "Senna is not above bullying this sort of metaphor into work for her, and too often hangs bells and lights on anything resonant.

[45] Kathryn Heyman criticized Senna's writing as lacking "emotional depth",[46] and that it "remains vague and disconcertingly clichéd".

"[32] Daniel Grassian declared that Danzy Senna was an author to watch, and "will become a major force in twenty-first century American literature".