Content Warning: This guide contains references to guns and gun violence. In addition, one prominent character’s name is a racial slur. This slur is reproduced in the guide wherever the character’s name appears.

Ray Carney owns a successful furniture store in Harlem, and although he is a legitimate businessman, he once also fenced stolen goods. Ray’s furniture store is located in an area of Harlem that has been for many years in a state of flux. Initially a Jewish neighborhood, it was for a time the largest Italian settlement in New York before gradually becoming the epicenter of Black culture in America. Ray and his business have been at the heart of this change: Initially a renter, Ray was eventually able to purchase the building where his store was located from his Italian landlord, who himself had bought the property from its previous owner, a Jewish businessman exiting the neighborhood for a more sedate suburban location.

Ray then reflects on his son, John, and daughter, May, both of whom are invested in racial equality and closely follow the news for information about the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, and the social unrest that each group foments.