Three-year-old Maya and four-year-old Bailey are sent by their divorced parents to live with Momma Henderson in Stamps, Arkansas.

Momma Henderson hides disabled Uncle Willie in a vegetable bin overnight to protect him from the approaching Ku Klux Klan.

Maya and Bailey's father arrives unexpectedly in Stamps and takes the children to St. Louis to live with their mother.

Mr. Freeman, Vivian's boyfriend, sexually abuses eight-year-old Maya and threatens to kill Bailey if she tells anyone.

Mr. Freeman rapes Maya; she passes out from the pain and wakes to find him washing her in the bathroom.

Vivian discovers Maya's stained underwear under the mattress and takes her daughter to the hospital.

Mr. Freeman is convicted at trial but released from prison the same day by his lawyer.

Mr. Freeman is found murdered behind the slaughterhouse shortly after his release from prison.

Mrs. Bertha Flowers befriends withdrawn Maya in Stamps, reigniting her love of books and spoken language.

White politician Mr. Donleavy delivers a demoralizing speech at Maya's eighth-grade graduation, crushing the graduating class's pride.

Valedictorian Henry Reed leads the entire Black audience in singing 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' restoring collective hope.

After Bailey is traumatized by racial violence in Stamps, Momma Henderson arranges to move the children to California.

Maya persistently visits the Market Street Railway Company for weeks until she is finally given an application and hired.

Maya becomes the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

Maya gives birth to a baby boy three weeks after graduating from high school.

Maya Angelou's memoir begins with her and her brother Bailey being sent to live with their grandmother Momma Henderson in the racially segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas. After their father unexpectedly arrives and takes them to St. Louis, Maya is sexually abused and then raped by her mother's boyfriend Mr. Freeman, an event that leaves her traumatized and mute. Back in Stamps, Maya slowly heals through the influence of the educated Mrs. Bertha Flowers, who rekindles her love of language and books. Her eighth-grade graduation becomes a moment of both humiliation and triumph when a white politician's demoralizing speech is answered by the entire community singing 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' After Momma moves the siblings to California to protect them from racial violence, Maya finds her footing in San Francisco, where she battles discrimination to become the first Black female streetcar conductor. The memoir closes with Maya giving birth to a son shortly after high school graduation, marking her passage into adulthood.

The headline events of Maya's journey from abandoned child to young mother.

The Great Depression reaches Stamps; Momma Henderson lets customers trade welfare rations for Store goods to keep her business afloat.

Maya and Bailey receive Christmas presents from their absent parents, shattering Maya's belief that her parents were dead.

Maya and Bailey arrive in St. Louis and move in with their maternal Grandmother Baxter, a powerful precinct captain.

Maya watches Vivian dance alone for her children in the tavern where she works and feels closest to her in that moment.

Maya takes a job as a maid in the home of wealthy white Stamps resident Mrs. Viola Cullinan.

Mrs. Cullinan begins calling Maya 'Mary' at a white friend's suggestion, refusing to use her real name.

Maya deliberately smashes Mrs. Cullinan's prized family china so that the infuriated woman will fire her.

Bailey stays at the movie theater to watch a film a second time after spotting an actress who looks exactly like his mother.

The Store fills with neighbors listening intently to a radio broadcast of Black boxer Joe Louis defeating his white opponent.

Maya meets classmate Louise Kendricks in the woods during the summer fish fry and the two become close friends.

Bailey begins a months-long romantic relationship with fifteen-year-old Joyce, who then disappears from Stamps by running away with a train porter.

Widower Mr. George Taylor visits the Store on a stormy night to share a ghost story about his recently deceased wife.

Vivian marries successful businessman Daddy Clidell and moves the family from Oakland to San Francisco.

Fourteen-year-old Maya receives a scholarship to attend evening drama and dance classes at the California Labor School.

Daddy Clidell teaches Maya to play poker and introduces her to con men so she can learn their schemes.

While Maya's main story unfolds around trauma and resilience, a rich layer of secondary events shapes the texture of her world. In Stamps, the Great Depression tests Momma's resourcefulness, and Christmas gifts from absent parents force Maya and Bailey to confront the pain of abandonment. Life in St. Louis introduces the glamour of Vivian's world, from gambling parlors to a famous boxing match, all while Bailey's first love and Maya's rebellious act at a white employer's house reveal their growing sense of identity. Back in Stamps and later in California, Maya finds her first real friendship with Louise Kendricks, and a new father figure in Daddy Clidell, who teaches her practical wisdom no classroom could offer. These events, spread across multiple cities and years, collectively trace the social fabric and relationships that surrounded Maya as she grew up.

The supporting moments that shaped Maya's world from Stamps to San Francisco.

Young Maya forgets her poem mid-recitation at Easter church service and flees the building, exposing her deep sense of displacement.

Maya watches Uncle Willie pretend to be fully able-bodied in front of visiting strangers and quietly understands his longing for dignity.

Maya watches white girls mock Momma outside the Store and realizes that her grandmother's unbroken calm is a form of victory.

When reunited with their mother, Bailey is immediately enchanted by Vivian's beauty, while Maya cannot forgive years of abandonment.

Maya lies under oath during Mr. Freeman's trial about the prior abuse, terrified of disappointing her family and convinced she shares the guilt.

After Mr. Freeman's murder, Maya concludes that her spoken words caused his death and voluntarily stops speaking to protect everyone around her.

While walking home after watching a film together, Bailey suddenly sprints across a train track just as a freight train passes.

At a community revival meeting, Maya watches a preacher's words transform exhausted, demoralized cotton pickers into jubilant, hopeful believers.

White dentist Dr. Lincoln refuses to treat Maya's agonizing toothache; Momma later exacts quiet revenge by charging him interest on an old loan.

Bailey is forced to help retrieve the body of a dead Black man from a pond, leaving him traumatized and withdrawn.

In wartime San Francisco, amid the city's rapid transformation, Maya finally experiences a genuine sense of belonging for the first time.

Maya drives her intoxicated father's car alone down a dark Mexican mountain road, feeling briefly powerful and completely in control.

Dolores attacks Maya with a weapon during a fight; Maya discovers her wound is not life-threatening and feels strangely let down.

Maya reads about lesbianism, fears she may be one, and decides that having sex with a nearby boy will settle the question.

Maya hides her pregnancy throughout her entire senior year and reveals it to her mother and stepfather only after receiving her diploma.

Beneath the events of Maya's life lies a quieter story of realizations and turning points that fundamentally change how she sees herself and the world. From her earliest awareness of racial displacement at an Easter church service to her recognition that Momma's stoic dignity is itself a form of resistance, Maya slowly builds a framework for surviving injustice. The trauma of the rape trial forces her into a damaging silence built on guilt, while her decision to stop speaking entirely becomes a form of self-protection that eventually gives way to healing. As she moves through adolescence, key revelations — about her father's loneliness, the power of community, and her own desires — push her toward a more grounded sense of self. By the memoir's close, Maya's decision to hide her pregnancy and navigate senior year alone demonstrates the quiet, determined independence she has forged over a lifetime of displacement.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define Maya's inner journey.