Winnie celebrates her unique style through her first year with a double-digit age as she has many new experiences, from the high of spending time in New York City with her aunt and big sister, to the low of her two best friends suddenly becoming interested in boys.

Twelve-year-old Clyde Thomason's older brother is a guard on the Freedom Train, which is carrying the Bill of Rights and other documents throughout the country in 1948, but Clyde is also learning about rights and freedom as he is saved from a beating by an African American boy, and later returns the favor when men in their Atlanta suburb decide to show the "Nigras" their place.