Cecile Rey, whose prosperous family are free people of color, makes friends with Marie-Grace Gardner, a doctor's daughter who has just returned to her native New Orleans in 1853, and persuades her to change places at their separate Mardi Gras balls.

In 1964, Melody learns that leadership can be difficult when she tries to fix up her neighborhood playground but then gets to help her brother by singing on a recording in a real Motown studio.

Melody is excited to sing her first solo and gleans inspiration from her brother's love of Motown and the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., but it soon becomes clear that things in the country are not fair for African Americans like her.

Readers choose from a variety of options in a multiple ending story as they join in Addy's Civil War-time adventures to outrun a slave catcher, raise money for soldiers, and search for Addy's family.

From the time John Lewis asked Dr. Martin Luther King to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown as teenager, he never stopped organizing, from Freedom Rides, to the marches in Selma and Washington, and more.