1. Cassie Logan and her brothers walk to school while avoiding a school bus that takes white kids.
2. Cassie and one of her brothers, Little Man, get in trouble for not taking there school books because of an offensive chart in the front cover of the books. The chart showed the race of the previous owner as well as the condition the book was in when it was taken from that person.
3. Cassie's papa comes home to their cotton plantation from trying to earn money working on the railroad. He brings a worker who was fired to work on the Logans' plantation.
4. Cassie's uncle Hammer comes to visit. He hears about something a white girl did to Cassie, and wants to do something to the white girl, but he is stopped by Cassie's mother. Cassie's father often wants to use Hammer's method of retaliation, but he is stopped by his wife.
5. Cassie's papa gets shot while in town with the fired railroad worker and Cassie's older brother, Stacey. His leg gets broken as well, but he is okay.
6. One of Stacey's supposed friends, T.J., gets Cassie's mom fired from her teaching post.
7. T.J. is hurt by some white boys he hung around with.
8. Stacey and Cassie try to save T.J. from the white police, but they can't. They don't know what happens to him, but they think he might have been killed.
9. Lightning sets the cotton from the Logan plantation on fire, but people from town help put it out. _