What is the exposition for homecoming by Cynthia Voigt?

The novel _Homecoming_ by Cynthia Voigt begins in a diner outside Smithsburg when Dicey Tillerman overhears the owner gossip to waitress Bess about Dicey's family. It then transitions to Dicey and her three younger siblings--James, Maybeth, and Sammy--hitchhiking with an elderly lady in their dilapidated Chevy van that was once their mom's. They are on their way back to Bridgeport, Connecticut their hometown on the coast before their mom died.