Two older boys from a rival crew follow Lolly through Harlem on Christmas Eve before stopping at their territory's border.

Neighbor Steve Jenkins gives Lolly a book about architecture for Christmas and urges him not to follow in Jermaine's footsteps.

Late on Christmas Eve, Lolly tears apart all his Lego kits to build something completely original for the very first time.

On Christmas morning, Yvonne surprises Lolly with two massive trash bags of Lego pieces she brought home from Tuttle's Toy Emporium.

Lolly's mom demands he tear down the House of Moneekrom because the Lego castle has taken over the entire living room.

Mr. Ali gives Lolly space in the after-school storage room to build, and Lolly constructs a sprawling Lego city he names Harmonee.

Rose quietly enters the storage room and begins building her own Lego city using Lolly's pieces without asking permission.

Lolly challenges Rose to a tower-building contest to force her out, but both towers collapse and he lets her stay.

Harp and Gully attack Lolly and Vega outside a bodega, steal their phones, and warn that Frito must join their crew.

Lolly and Rose display their Lego cities at the after-school barbeque, drawing large crowds and thousands of online followers.

Lolly confronts his father at the barbeque, telling him Jermaine might have survived if Daddy Rachpaul had been more present.

Vega shows Lolly a Glock hidden under his bed and reveals his plan to shoot Harp and Gully for revenge.

Yvonne is arrested after authorities discover she has been stealing Lego pieces for Lolly from Tuttle's Toy Emporium.

Lolly quotes Phillis Wheatley in a meeting with Mr. Tuttle and offers to work off Yvonne's debt, persuading Tuttle to drop charges.

Vega throws the Glock into the Harlem River, choosing to abandon revenge and return to his music and old self.

After his older brother Jermaine is shot dead, twelve-year-old Lolly receives an architecture book for Christmas from a neighbor named Steve, sparking a creative awakening. His mother's girlfriend Yvonne secretly brings home bags of Lego bricks from her job, and Lolly builds an enormous city called Harmonee inside the after-school storage room. An unexpected partnership with a girl named Rose deepens the project, but a brutal mugging by two older boys named Harp and Gully sends Lolly's best friend Vega toward a dangerous path of revenge. When Lolly and Rose display their cities at the after-school barbeque, Lolly finally finds the courage to confront his absent father about Jermaine. The crisis peaks when Yvonne is arrested for theft and Vega reveals a hidden gun, forcing Lolly to decide between violence and a better future. Lolly ultimately persuades Vega to throw the gun into the river, securing both their futures.

Lolly's journey from grief to identity through Lego building and a critical choice.

Lolly opens Rockit's Christmas present and finds an expensive video game console, disappointed to find no letter from Jermaine inside.

Mr. Ali urges Lolly to accept Jermaine's death during a counseling session; Lolly furiously kicks the desk hard enough to dent it.

Lolly's dad arrives for a Late Christmas visit with his girlfriend Heike; Lolly tricks her by falsely claiming there is a mouse.

The community center goes on lockdown after a 14-year-old boy is shot and wounded outside a nearby bodega.

Sunny gives every after-school student a Valentine's candy except Rose, then tricks Rose into eating a jalapeño-flavored piece.

Lolly and his friends spot a wild coyote in St. Nicholas Park at night and decide not to report it to the police.

Lolly and Vega sit on the curb outside the Bronx nightclub where Jermaine was murdered, and Lolly breaks down sobbing.

Mr. Ali and Ms. Jen bring the after-school group to the storage room to view Harmonee, and Lolly explains the city's story.

Rose confronts Sunny in the storage room, telling her she acts ugly on the inside, causing Sunny to deflate and leave.

After being jumped, Vega visits the storage room and shoves apart the Lego bridge before leaving without apologizing to Lolly or Rose.

A local TV news crew interviews Lolly about Harmonee, and his web page quickly gains more than ten thousand followers.

Harold Tuttle personally calls to invite Lolly and Rose to build a paid Easter display in his toy store's front window.

Lolly and Rose walk the High Line together and both confess they want to spend their lives making art.

Mr. Ali tells Lolly that Rose has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum and relocated to a school in Mount Vernon.

Lolly travels to Mount Vernon, waits for Rose, and gives her a poetry book by Safia Elhillo when she finally appears.

As Lolly struggles with grief and the pressures of street life, a series of secondary but meaningful events define the texture of his world. Difficult counseling sessions, a tense family visit from his father, a neighborhood shooting that locks down the community center, and social cruelties within after-school all weigh on Lolly's fragile emotional state. A trip to the Bronx nightclub where Jermaine was killed provides a raw moment of grieving that begins to lift the heaviness in his chest. The Lego cities he and Rose build gain community recognition through a news interview, an online following, and an exciting offer from the toy store owner. Even as Vega grows distant and destructive after the mugging, Rose emerges as a loyal ally who stands up for herself and Lolly. The resolution brings bittersweet change as Rose is relocated to a new school, but Lolly's visit to Mount Vernon confirms their lasting friendship.

The supporting moments that shaped Lolly's transformation in Harlem.

Lolly's mom breaks down sobbing on Christmas morning thinking about Jermaine, and Lolly holds her until she calms down.

Mr. Ali suggests that Lolly and his father work together on their relationship to help them both grieve Jermaine, but Lolly refuses.

In a flashback, young Jermaine angrily orders Lolly never to visit the barbershop, and Lolly turns to Lego for the first time for comfort.

Vega tells Lolly that cousin Frito was shot but survived, and that Harp and Gully are now pressuring Frito to join their crew.

Rose and Lolly grab opposite ends of a Lego bag in a tense standoff until Lolly silently drops the bag in front of her.

Vega plays a mournful Tchaikovsky piece on his violin in the storage room, and Lolly realizes for the first time that all art moves its audience.

While biking through Harlem, Lolly runs into Rockit, who reveals that Jermaine had big plans for Lolly and wanted him to attend college.

Mr. Ali tells Lolly and Rose that their Lego cities must be demolished to make space for a new fitness program.

Overwhelmed by learning Harmonee must be torn down, Lolly crawls into his mother's bed in the middle of the night.

Rose's grandmother Dr. Betty Green gives Lolly a copy of The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley after he visits their apartment.

On the subway ride home from Rose's grandmother's apartment, Lolly reads a Phillis Wheatley poem and is unexpectedly deeply moved by it.

Lolly admits to Vega that he blames himself for Jermaine's death, revealing their bitter final argument for the first time.

Sunny visits Lolly, kisses him above the eye, and tells him that sometimes you do what's right even when it seems dumb.

Seeing his mother's devastation over Yvonne's arrest gives Lolly the resolve to convince Vega to abandon the revenge plan.

Lolly asks his family at dinner to stop calling him Lolly and to use his real name, Wallace, marking a new sense of self.

Beneath the headline events of Lolly's story lie the quieter but crucial discoveries that shift his understanding of himself and the world. A flashback to a formative fight with Jermaine reveals why Lego building first became Lolly's emotional refuge, while early counseling reveals his fierce resistance to letting go. As Rose enters his life, small confrontations show Lolly slowly opening up, building not just cities but a capacity for genuine connection. Conversations with Rockit, a surprise violin performance by Vega, and the words of Phillis Wheatley each deepen Lolly's sense of art as something powerful and transformative. The forced teardown of Harmonee and the crisis over Vega's gun push Lolly to finally voice his deepest guilt—that he blames himself for Jermaine's death. By the novel's end, Lolly has processed enough grief to clear Jermaine's bed from his room and claim his real name, Wallace, as a mark of new identity.