Sometime in the past, in a hospital room where a little girl is recovering from a fall, a boy who calls himself Brick finds a man in a military uniform playing a harmonica. The man shows him how to play the harmonica and invites Brick to visit the girl, whose name is Rachel, anytime he likes. Brick returns the following day and the day after that, and during his visits, the man drinks alcohol from a flask. Brick learns how to play the man’s harmonica.

Back in the present, in Portland, the end of the school year approaches. Rachel wins a race on Race Day, beating Tamika and all the other students, and a beautiful classmate named Carmen mocks Rachel while putting the first place medallion around Rachel’s neck. Rachel puts her tears into her blue bottle and thinks about her birthday the next month, when she will turn 12.

At some point in the past, a black American man named Roger meets a Danish white woman named Nella at a dance club in Germany. They flirt, dance, and spend the night together.