Hummingbird takes place in Wildwood, Tennessee. Olive Martin, an 11-year-old girl with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI or “brittle bone disease”) arrives at church with her Uncle Dash. Uncle Dash is experiencing one of his “flutters,” episodes of unease that he claims signify change. Olive hopes it signals a change in her life: Homeschooled due to her condition, she longs to attend Macklemore Middle School and find a friend. At church, a woman prevents her young son from hugging Olive because she “is as fragile as a falling star” (10). Olive reflects on the true reason why she wants to attend Macklemore: She wants to prove she is more than her brittle bones. She prays that God will let her attend Macklemore and feels something wonderful is about to begin.

Another woman approaches Olive at church and loudly prays for God to “HEAL this little girl of the TERRIBLE disease that’s left her stuck in this CHAIR” (16), making Olive uncomfortable. She does not view her wheelchair—and by extension, her disability—as a “disease”; she sees her wheelchair as a mobility aid, a “skateboard with a seat” (15). As Mama whisks her out of church, Olive vows to show everyone that she is more than her bones.