Ten-year-old Kenny chronicles the events of a fateful summer for the Watson family of Flint, Michigan. When Kenny’s older brother Byron starts getting into too much trouble, Mama and Dad decide the family needs to pay a visit to Grandma Sands in Alabama to set him straight. Mama, Dad, Kenny, Byron, and youngest sister Joetta set out on a cross-country journey, heading south and toward a moment in American history where the world seems to change before their eyes.