James Baldwin recalls his childhood. He is attached to his mother and terrified of his stepfather, a Baptist preacher, who mistreats him. He loves his affectionate paternal grandmother and is heartbroken over her death. His mother often protects the children from their father, and in turn the siblings are “united against [their] father” to protect her and one another (4). Baldwin recalls one of his stepbrothers saving him from drowning. This stepbrother later left home after a fight with their father and only returned for his funeral. Baldwin himself leaves home when he is 17.

When Martin Luther King is assassinated, Baldwin questions his previously held beliefs about human beings. For Baldwin, people are an “unprecedented miracle” but they have also become “disasters,” and civil rights activists like King, who showed faith in the American people, were betrayed by them. With King’s funeral, Baldwin experiences an emotional shift. Living in Hollywood at the time, he is writing a screenplay based on Malcolm X’s autobiography.

While visiting New York, Baldwin goes to see an old friend and his family. Baldwin realizes that he has become a different person, while his friend has remained untouched by the events in the country. They start a heated discussion about the Vietnam War, which ruins the gathering.