In this speech, Baldwin pretends to write a novel in front of the audience. He carries his listeners through his process of thinking about character and plot. Baldwin proposes that the writer's work is to find something in common with the reader. As he reflects on his own history for material, he seeks the thread which will connect his story to his reader.

Baldwin considers Harlem when he was growing up in the 1920s. The characters in his novel will be unwittingly impacted by global events, including the “plotting and writing” of Hitler in Germany and the beginning of Mussolini’s dictatorship. Baldwin thinks about a man who used to walk up and down his street while drunk. Children followed him, taunting him. He thinks about the people in his father’s congregation who came to their house on Sunday and ate all their food. Although these people will feature in his novel, Baldwin argues that it is not enough. His story must be more than a retelling of one’s own childhood. The lives of the people must be impacted by the larger social and historical context.

Baldwin then talks about leaving Harlem behind and encountering the white world.