While trying to find a topic for her school assignment, Keisha visits Ellie's attic and discovers the excitement of the music and writing that flourished among African Americans in Harlem during the 1920s.
Relates episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life which include getting into trouble with his younger brother Huey, planting a garden, what he did to try to grow taller, losing a tooth, and finding a new friend.
In 1906, while visiting his journalist uncle in California, thirteen-year-old Jerry hears the San Francisco earthquake predicted at preacher William Seymour's Pentecostal mission, sees the ensuing destruction, and learns the power of the Holy Ghost.
When his father tries to save the family farm in Alabama in 1898 by following the advice of George Washington Carver, fourteen-year-old Jesse struggles to help in his own way.