In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door--an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.

But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. Told in multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in today -- what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? -- as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that's as provocative as it is powerful.