It is the fifth book in the saga following: Song of the Trees (1975), Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry (1976), Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), and The Gold Cadillac (1987).

Harris, one of Cassie's friends, is chased by Aames brothers' dogs until he suffers a broken leg and is knocked unconscious.

Cassie leaves for school in Jackson only to return in November for the funeral of Great Faith Church's preacher.

Sissy confides in Cassie that she knows it is in fact Clarence, her lover, who is on an overnight pass from the Army and refuses to marry her.

While in Strawberry, Stacy must stop to make his car payments to Wade Jemison, a friendly white attorney and must also repair a low tire.

As the group runs their errands, they once again encounter the Aames brothers, who claim Clarence has lost his manners since being in the Army.

Later, as the group picks up Stacey's car from the garage and run into Sissy, Harris, Little Man, and Christopher-John, the Aames brothers attempt to subject Moe to the same embarrassing treatment.

Cassie encounters a man named Solomon Bradley, a lawyer, who she finds both attractive and challenging.

In the morning, they awake to find not only that white men at the rest stop made a gash in the side of Stacey's car, but that the Ford still will not start.

Before they can continue their journey, Clarence begins screaming about the pain of his headache, running out of the car knocking himself unconscious.

The area's white hospital refuses to admit him but they get help from a local Black woman who agrees to care for him while the rest of the group continues the journey.

When Moe finally gets a train ticket to Chicago, he tells Cassie what he did not get the chance to do in the woods: that he has loved her for a long time and he wanted to marry her after he gets a better education.

Jeremy Simms eventually reveals that he was in fact the culprit and is disowned by his father for being a "nigger lover."