Twelve-year-old Lena is aware of racism, but she lives a comfortable life in the segregated but relatively wealthy Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma; but on May 31, 1921 racial tensions explode, and men from downtown Tulsa invade Greenwood, set on killing and destroying the district--and as the violence escalates Lena, her parents, and her older sister search desperately for a safe place to hide from the mob.