In 1975, Tempestt Saville and her family are chosen by lottery to move on up to Lakeland: one square mile of sparkling apartment towers and emerald lawns where the Black elite live sheltered from the ghetto by a ten-foot-tall, ivy-covered wrought-iron fence. Eleven-year-old Temmy doesn’t enjoy the privilege, however, and thinks Lakeland is the kingdom of the drab.
Instead, she is drawn to the vivid world outside the fence: to 35th Street, where the saved and the sinners are both so done up you can’t tell one from the other. Tempestt’s curiosity soon leads her down a dangerous path, however, and after witnessing the death of a friend, she sets into motion a chain of events that will send 35th Street up in flames.