T.J. tells the Logan children that white men set fire to members of the Berry family.

David arrives home from the railroad with Mr. Morrison, a large man brought to help protect the family.

David announces the Logan family will stop shopping at the Wallace store after learning of the Berrys' burning.

The Logan children dig a trench in the road, causing the Jefferson Davis school bus to become stuck.

Two cars of white men drive to the Logan home at night but leave without harming the family.

Stacey fights T.J. at the Wallace store after discovering T.J. stole test answers from their mother.

Mary drives the children to visit the severely burned Mr. Berry to show them the violence the Wallaces inflicted.

Mr. Simms shoves Cassie off the Strawberry sidewalk, and Big Ma forces Cassie to apologize to him.

Uncle Hammer gives Stacey an expensive new wool coat as an early Christmas present.

Mr. Jamison offers to back the Vicksburg shopping arrangement with his own credit, angering Mr. Granger.

Mr. Granger and two men posing as school board members visit Mary's classroom and fire her for teaching unapproved material.

The Wallaces sabotage the Logan wagon and shoot David, breaking his leg and injuring his head.

The bank demands full repayment of the Logans' mortgage at Mr. Granger's urging.

T.J. arrives at the Logan house beaten, revealing he and the Simms brothers robbed the Barnett Mercantile.

David sets his own cotton field on fire to distract a lynch mob and save T.J. from hanging.

The novel opens with the Logan children navigating a racially unequal school system while T.J. delivers news of the Berry family's burning, prompting David to bring Mr. Morrison home for protection and to announce a boycott of the Wallace store. The Logans resist racist mistreatment through small acts of defiance, including trapping the school bus in a trench, while Cassie endures a humiliating confrontation with the Simms family in Strawberry. Uncle Hammer's Christmas visit brings warmth but also tension, and Mr. Jamison's backing of the Vicksburg shopping arrangement escalates the conflict with Mr. Granger. Mary is fired from her teaching job in retaliation, and the Wallaces violently attack David on the road to Vicksburg, injuring him severely. The bank then calls in the full mortgage on the Logans' land, and T.J.'s disastrous robbery of the Barnett Mercantile triggers a lynch mob crisis that David ends only by setting his own cotton field on fire.

The Logan family's fight to keep their land and dignity.

Little Man refuses his tattered first-grade textbook and stomps on it after seeing the condition chart inside.

Mary covers the condition charts in the school textbooks with blank paper rather than punishing Cassie and Little Man.

John Henry Berry's death is announced at church, and neighbors describe how white men burned him and his relatives.

The Jefferson Davis school bus driver intentionally drives through a puddle, drenching the Logan children in mud and water.

Mr. Avery knocks on the Logan door to warn the family that white night riders may target Black families again.

T.J. shows Stacey stolen test answers on the walk to school, and Stacey tears the paper into pieces.

Big Ma tells Cassie the story of how her grandfather worked after slavery to buy the family's land.

Uncle Hammer storms out of the house after Cassie tells him that Mr. Simms shoved her in Strawberry.

T.J. mocks Stacey's new coat until Stacey gives it away, convinced by T.J.'s teasing that it looks wrong on him.

Mr. Morrison tells the Logan family how white men killed his parents and siblings on a Christmas night during Reconstruction.

T.J. is revealed to have reported Mary's boycott activities to the Wallaces, leading directly to her firing.

Mr. Morrison lifts the Wallaces' truck off the road with his bare hands after they block the wagon's path.

T.J. hesitates at the church revival but ultimately leaves with the Simms brothers for a night trip to Strawberry.

All four Logan children walk T.J. home through a closing storm after he arrives at their door beaten and bruised.

Rain begins to fall and helps douse the fire burning through the Logans' cotton field.

The novel's secondary events reveal how racism operates at every level of the Logan children's daily lives, from degraded textbooks to a mud-splashing school bus driver who targets them deliberately. The Logan community gathers information and shares warnings, learning of John Henry Berry's death at church and receiving late-night alerts about roaming night riders. Family bonds are tested by T.J.'s petty theft and manipulation, and strengthened by Big Ma's stories of the land and Mr. Morrison's heartbreaking account of his family's massacre during Reconstruction. After Mary's firing, the Logan children discover T.J. betrayed her and sever ties with him, while Mr. Morrison demonstrates his extraordinary strength by lifting the Wallaces' truck from the road. The novel closes this arc with T.J. leaving a church revival to pursue his doomed scheme with the Simms brothers, the Logan children risking themselves to walk him home, and rain finally ending the fire that saved his life.

The daily struggles and quiet resistance of the Logan family.

Cassie watches from the porch as cars of white men pull into the driveway and then drive away without attacking.

Mary catches Stacey with test cheat notes, and Stacey accepts the punishment rather than revealing the notes belong to T.J.

Mary explains to Cassie how slavery shaped white people's belief that Black people were inferior, giving context to Cassie's mistreatment.

Mr. Morrison intercepts Uncle Hammer on the road and prevents him from seeking violent revenge on Mr. Simms.

Uncle Hammer refuses to retrieve the coat from T.J. and lectures Stacey about letting himself be manipulated.

David warns Stacey that maintaining a true friendship with a white boy like Jeremy costs too much in Mississippi.

Mr. Granger visits the Logan home and threatens to have the bank call in their mortgage if the boycott continues.

Big Ma formally signs the family land over to David and Uncle Hammer, transferring legal ownership.

Cassie spends weeks pretending to befriend Lillian Jean and gathering her secrets as preparation for revenge.

Cassie lures Lillian Jean into the forest and physically forces her to apologize for the mistreatment in Strawberry.

David tells Stacey he is bringing him on the Vicksburg trip so Stacey will not grow up foolish like T.J.

Uncle Hammer sells his Packard to raise money and prevent the bank from seizing the Logans' land.

Mr. Jamison uses his car to physically block the white mob from taking T.J. and summons the sheriff to intervene.

Cassie suddenly realizes that David deliberately set his field on fire to distract the mob and save T.J. from lynching.

Stacey runs into the forest weeping over T.J.'s likely fate, and Cassie cries in her bed for T.J. and the land.

The novel's most consequential turning points begin when Cassie witnesses white men approach the Logan home and leave without striking, understanding for the first time how precarious her family's safety is. Cassie's education in racism deepens when Big Ma forces her public apology in Strawberry and Mary privately explains how slavery shaped white supremacist beliefs. Uncle Hammer's visit produces a series of revelations: Morrison prevents Hammer from taking violent revenge, and Hammer teaches Stacey a hard lesson about manipulation, while David quietly warns Stacey about the limits of cross-racial friendship. Legal and financial maneuvers sharpen the conflict when Mr. Granger threatens the mortgage, Big Ma formally signs the land to David and Hammer, and Cassie executes her patient revenge against Lillian Jean. The final turning points arrive in rapid succession as Uncle Hammer sacrifices his car to save the land, Mr. Jamison physically blocks the lynch mob, and Cassie finally grasps that her father deliberately burned his own field, mourning both T.J.'s fate and the cost of the land her family could not afford to lose.