Esme, age twenty-four and newly certified, is hired to teach fifth grade at a brand-new Chicago public school.

Esme's beloved mentor Ismene dies just before the school year begins, leaving Esme without her guidance.

Esme renames all school subjects to help students approach learning without preconceived notions about their abilities.

Esme begins each school day greeting every student personally and collecting their worries in a Trouble Basket.

Esme threatens to contact the union and ACLU when Mr. Turner repeatedly refuses to use her chosen name.

Esme builds a time machine from a refrigerator box, inviting students to imaginatively visit the world of any book.

Esme buys thirty-one copies of Number the Stars out of her own money to fuel a Holocaust unit.

Students stab a substitute teacher with a pencil, citing Esme's own Golden Rule lesson as their justification.

Mr. Turner calls Esme into a closed-door meeting, yells at her about her name, and she storms out prepared to quit.

Veteran teacher Ms. Federman talks Esme out of quitting, warning that there are far bigger battles ahead than this name dispute.

Esme wins the Dr. Peggy Williams Award for outstanding new teacher in Reading and Language Arts.

Mr. Turner offers Esme a contract renewal but hints that major staffing upheaval is coming to the school.

B.B. is suspended after calling Esme a bitch and attempting to physically hit her.

End-of-year test results show every student improved over the academic year, with some advancing two or three grade levels.

Esme attends her former students' eighth-grade graduation and is saddened to see how few of the thirty-one made it to the stage.

Esme is hired to teach thirty-one fifth graders at a brand-new Chicago inner-city school, throwing herself into building a classroom full of imagination and empathy from her very first day. She clashes repeatedly with principal Mr. Turner over her insistence on being called Madame Esme, a battle that nearly ends in her resignation midway through the year. She pushes students further than anyone expects, using novels and hands-on projects to open discussions about history, identity, and belonging. By mid-year, student progress is undeniable and Esme is recognized with a prestigious teaching award, even as her conflicts with administration continue. The final weeks are bittersweet, with victories in test scores and heartfelt student letters shadowed by ongoing violence and hardship in students' home lives. When Esme later attends her former students' eighth-grade graduation, she is moved and saddened to see how few of her original thirty-one made it to the stage.

Esme's first year teaching fifth grade from hiring to final farewell.

Mr. Turner goes door-to-door in the community before the school opens, attempting to solicit donations from residents.

Esme proposes a Fairy Tale Festival to fellow staff members, who summarily reject the idea without fully hearing it out.

Esme speaks to Twanette's mother about stolen pencils and is horrified when the mother threatens to beat her daughter with a belt.

Esme's prized comic book is stolen from the classroom, prompting her to pack up her non-standard supplementary books.

Esme intervenes when Mr. Turner attempts to take a raffled American Girl doll away from the male student who legitimately won it.

Esme calls Mr. Turner at three in the morning to demonstrate how intrusive his habit of calling her at home late at night has been.

Esme takes her entire class outside to watch the first snowfall and the group accidentally gets locked out of the building.

Esme is the only teacher who volunteers to dance onstage at a student-beloved Just Say No hip-hop assembly.

Students celebrate a Native Americans unit with authentic costumes and a visit from a local Native American sharing cultural artifacts.

Esme formally joins the teachers' union as a way to protect herself after her conflicts with Mr. Turner escalate.

Esme teaches struggling students multiplication by converting the lesson into an energetic cha-cha dance routine.

A conflict between students Zykerica and Kyla is successfully resolved through student-led peer mediation without adult intervention.

Esme wears a sari brought by shy student Akila, inspiring Akila to begin proudly wearing one herself.

Student Asha brings her two-year-old brother to school and Esme spends the entire day teaching while caring for the toddler.

Students write Esme touchingly tender letters before the year ends, expressing surprise and pride at how much they read.

Before school even opens, Esme's unconventional ideas collide with the low ambitions of her colleagues, foreshadowing a year of creative battles fought on her students' behalf. Once students arrive, Esme fills their days with hands-on experiences — snow day adventures, hip-hop assemblies, and student-led conflict resolution sessions — that transform the classroom into a community. Difficult parent interactions and student theft complicate her efforts, but Esme responds with patience and inventiveness rather than punishment. As the year unfolds, she converts academic struggles into opportunities, turning multiplication into a dance lesson and empowering students to run their own peer mediation and book clubs. Even in the moments that seem small — a borrowed sari, a toddler brought to school, a secret thank-you note — the depth of Esme's relationships with her students is on full display. By the final days of school, students are writing her letters full of pride and gratitude, a quiet testament to how far the classroom community traveled together.

The everyday experiments, surprises, and classroom moments that defined the year.

Esme answers interview questions with irreverent humor, joking she would faint dead away if a student ever cursed in class.

Esme notices that Mr. Turner appears to preferentially hire slender, young, attractive female teachers over more experienced candidates.

Transfer student Esther, flagged by the vice principal as a fighter, begins putting voodoo spells on classmates and Esme contacts her family.

Valerie's mother demands that Esme return her non-standard supplementary books to the classroom after they were removed following a theft.

Esme breaks up fights and confronts an eighth-grade gang member, telling Mr. Turner directly that she works for the children, not for him.

Defiant student Billy is made to plan lessons and run class for an entire school day as an unconventional discipline experiment.

Vice Principal Coil moves a poster in Esme's classroom without reason; Esme retaliates by moving a plant in Coil's office.

Esme makes a pointed sarcastic remark in a staff meeting when the school announces new funding tied to Michael Jordan's mother's foundation.

Vice Principal Coil reveals during a furniture-moving errand that she has plagiarized significant portions of her doctoral dissertation.

A board-ordered educational evaluator upsets a dedicated teacher by declaring that her effective and beloved methods do not meet state curriculum standards.

Esme learns that student Latoya's chronic tardiness is caused by living in a distant homeless shelter, not by indifference or disrespect.

B.B.'s mother physically punches B.B. in front of Esme during the meeting held after his school suspension.

Ozzie's mother reveals that his stepfather is physically abusive and that Ozzie knows where the family gun is kept and thinks about using it.

Esme consults the school counselor about B.B. but decides not to call Child and Family Services, fearing it would make his situation worse.

Esme leaves the school and becomes a librarian at a calmer school with a supportive principal, but finds herself missing her former students.

From her very first irreverent interview answer to her eventual departure for a dream job as a librarian, Esme's story is defined by moments of revelation that force her to choose between compliance and conviction. Early confrontations expose the low expectations surrounding her students and the ethical failures of the adults meant to support them, including a vice principal who casually admits to plagiarizing her doctoral work. Unconventional discipline strategies, like making a defiant student teach class for a day, reveal Esme's belief that understanding must be earned through perspective, not punishment. Some of the most gut-wrenching moments arise when students' hidden burdens come to light — a girl living in a homeless shelter, a boy fantasizing about shooting his abusive stepfather — forcing Esme to reckon with the limits of what a teacher can fix. Each confrontation with Mr. Turner, the school board, and the realities of her students' lives pushes Esme toward a harder, more honest understanding of what education can and cannot do. By the time she settles into her librarian role at a calmer school, she carries both pride in what she built and grief over the students she could not fully protect.

The discoveries, confrontations, and decisions that shaped who Esme became as a teacher.